Ear Buds
Selling is the name of the game. A soap to make you beautiful ; a tonic to pep you up enough to smash through a glass window ; a cream to make you fair and now the best way to clean your ears - ear buds.
Going by the sales figures it seems that advertisers can really con people into anything .
Most educated people believe that ear buds are the best and most hygienic way to clean or scratch ones ears. Obviously this is not the truth. Though they may be better than match sticks or hair pins, they are certainly not ideal. In fact recently there are more and more bud induced problem being seen. Buds are often causative factors in external otitis (a painful condition of the ear) and are often responsible for wax impactions.
The selling points often highlighted in the case of buds is that they are clean and their plastic stalk is supple. What we don't realize is that they are large and dry and so are likely to damage the delicate skin lining the ear canal. Also even though they have a supple plastic stalk they are as capable as match sticks in causing injury to the ear drum if not used carefully.
Before we go on to the limitations of ready made ear buds, a brief overview of the anatomy of the ear and of the mechanism of wax formation.
As can be seen from the accompanying diagram, the area covered under bud use is the external auditory canal or ear canal extending from the outer opening of the ear to the ear drum.
What needs to be emphasized is :
1. The ear canal or the external auditory canal is lined by very delicate skin.
2. This canal is not straight but is curved and straightens out only when the pinna (outer part of the ear) is pulled. Hence any bud or straight object inserted into the ear is likely to injure the wall of the ear. Consider therefore a situation where a person has itching originating at point A and tries to satiate this desire with ear buds. The curved nature of the canal and the large diameter of an ear bud would be very likely to damage the skin of the ear canal generously at more than one point.
3. There are some regions of the ear canal where a bud cannot reach like the point B in the diagram. Attempted removal of wax impacted in this region with ear buds is very likely to damage the ear drum.
To summarize the limitations of the ready-made buds therefore:
1. They have a large diameter ; hence -
a) they often cause injury to the lining skin of the ear canal.
b) they cannot reach the inner part of the ear canal where itching may originate or wax may be present ; this often forces people to try harder and thereby cause injury to the lining skin.
c) Ironically, attempted wax removal with buds sometimes results in pushing of the migrating wax further inside resulting in further impaction.
2. They are dry and hence more likely to cause abrasions on the lining skin.
3. Their being supple does not make them any less likely to cause injury. It only gives a false sense of security to the person using the bud.
A few words about wax formation before we go to ear care: The ear canal like the rest of the body is lined by skin though it is much thinner and more delicate here and has ceruminous glands. Our skin has one unique property that it is continuously being replaced by new cell layers from below and the surface dead layers are flaked out. These flakes in the skin over the rest of the body are washed off during a bath. In the ear canal which is like a blind pocket, these accumulate with the secretions of the ceruminous glands (present in the lining skin) forming wax. This wax normally is semisolid and moves outwards towards the opening of the canal aided by the jaw movements. This phenomenon is called migration.
EAR CARE:
Is wax formation normal ?
Yes wax formation is normal and natural. In fact it is a sign of a healthy ear. Having a little wax in the ear is normal. However accumulation of wax especially to the stage of impaction is harmful. Luckily most people are not prone to this.
How frequently should one clean the ear ?
More than 80 % of the people do not need to clean their ears because removal of wax from within the canal is continuously being achieved by a process of migration. This self cleansing mechanism is inadequate only in 20 % of the population where migration fails. Reasons attributed are : an intrinsically deficient migratory mechanism or the nature of formed wax being dry,hard or too sticky. Such people are predisposed to wax impaction. They need to clean their ears atleast once a month.
How should the ear be cleaned ?
It is essential to first soften the wax before one attempts to clean the ear wax. Wax softening drops should be used atleast 3 days prior to attempting removal. Often softening the wax itself solves the problem by facilitating migration. After softening, cleaning of wax should be attempted with cotton buds coated with an ointment - any ointment used for cuts & wounds would do. Regarding buds, it is better to make ones own buds using clean medical grade cotton. The ointment serves to lubricate the buds and prevent injury to the delicate lining skin. In young children use of ear buds is preferably avoided. Once wax is cleaned it is a good practice to use wax softening drops once weekly as a preventive in people with a tendency to impaction.
How useful / dangerous is the practice of putting oil in the ear ?
Warm coconut oil is grandma's remedy for all sorts of ear aches. Not without logic really ; but only for wax in the ear because it serves to soften the wax and aids it's migration.. However the preservatives added to the so called refined coconut oil are rarely seen to cause a chemical irritation especially in children. Those used to this practice may well continue ; avoidable in children though.
.... and hydrogen peroxide ?
This is really something that makes one feel that the ear is being cleaned because of it's efferversence. Use of this chemical is definitely not advisable because it can cause perforation of thin drums. Thin ear drums are quite common findings even in asymptomatic people. They are especially common in people who have had history of discharging ears.
How should one scratch the ear in case of itching ?
Home made buds using clean cotton coated with a generous quantity of ointment and used gently should be ideal.
Selling is the name of the game. A soap to make you beautiful ; a tonic to pep you up enough to smash through a glass window ; a cream to make you fair and now the best way to clean your ears - ear buds.
Going by the sales figures it seems that advertisers can really con people into anything .
Most educated people believe that ear buds are the best and most hygienic way to clean or scratch ones ears. Obviously this is not the truth. Though they may be better than match sticks or hair pins, they are certainly not ideal. In fact recently there are more and more bud induced problem being seen. Buds are often causative factors in external otitis (a painful condition of the ear) and are often responsible for wax impactions.
The selling points often highlighted in the case of buds is that they are clean and their plastic stalk is supple. What we don't realize is that they are large and dry and so are likely to damage the delicate skin lining the ear canal. Also even though they have a supple plastic stalk they are as capable as match sticks in causing injury to the ear drum if not used carefully.
Before we go on to the limitations of ready made ear buds, a brief overview of the anatomy of the ear and of the mechanism of wax formation.
As can be seen from the accompanying diagram, the area covered under bud use is the external auditory canal or ear canal extending from the outer opening of the ear to the ear drum.
What needs to be emphasized is :
1. The ear canal or the external auditory canal is lined by very delicate skin.
2. This canal is not straight but is curved and straightens out only when the pinna (outer part of the ear) is pulled. Hence any bud or straight object inserted into the ear is likely to injure the wall of the ear. Consider therefore a situation where a person has itching originating at point A and tries to satiate this desire with ear buds. The curved nature of the canal and the large diameter of an ear bud would be very likely to damage the skin of the ear canal generously at more than one point.
3. There are some regions of the ear canal where a bud cannot reach like the point B in the diagram. Attempted removal of wax impacted in this region with ear buds is very likely to damage the ear drum.
To summarize the limitations of the ready-made buds therefore:
1. They have a large diameter ; hence -
a) they often cause injury to the lining skin of the ear canal.
b) they cannot reach the inner part of the ear canal where itching may originate or wax may be present ; this often forces people to try harder and thereby cause injury to the lining skin.
c) Ironically, attempted wax removal with buds sometimes results in pushing of the migrating wax further inside resulting in further impaction.
2. They are dry and hence more likely to cause abrasions on the lining skin.
3. Their being supple does not make them any less likely to cause injury. It only gives a false sense of security to the person using the bud.
A few words about wax formation before we go to ear care: The ear canal like the rest of the body is lined by skin though it is much thinner and more delicate here and has ceruminous glands. Our skin has one unique property that it is continuously being replaced by new cell layers from below and the surface dead layers are flaked out. These flakes in the skin over the rest of the body are washed off during a bath. In the ear canal which is like a blind pocket, these accumulate with the secretions of the ceruminous glands (present in the lining skin) forming wax. This wax normally is semisolid and moves outwards towards the opening of the canal aided by the jaw movements. This phenomenon is called migration.
EAR CARE:
Is wax formation normal ?
Yes wax formation is normal and natural. In fact it is a sign of a healthy ear. Having a little wax in the ear is normal. However accumulation of wax especially to the stage of impaction is harmful. Luckily most people are not prone to this.
How frequently should one clean the ear ?
More than 80 % of the people do not need to clean their ears because removal of wax from within the canal is continuously being achieved by a process of migration. This self cleansing mechanism is inadequate only in 20 % of the population where migration fails. Reasons attributed are : an intrinsically deficient migratory mechanism or the nature of formed wax being dry,hard or too sticky. Such people are predisposed to wax impaction. They need to clean their ears atleast once a month.
How should the ear be cleaned ?
It is essential to first soften the wax before one attempts to clean the ear wax. Wax softening drops should be used atleast 3 days prior to attempting removal. Often softening the wax itself solves the problem by facilitating migration. After softening, cleaning of wax should be attempted with cotton buds coated with an ointment - any ointment used for cuts & wounds would do. Regarding buds, it is better to make ones own buds using clean medical grade cotton. The ointment serves to lubricate the buds and prevent injury to the delicate lining skin. In young children use of ear buds is preferably avoided. Once wax is cleaned it is a good practice to use wax softening drops once weekly as a preventive in people with a tendency to impaction.
How useful / dangerous is the practice of putting oil in the ear ?
Warm coconut oil is grandma's remedy for all sorts of ear aches. Not without logic really ; but only for wax in the ear because it serves to soften the wax and aids it's migration.. However the preservatives added to the so called refined coconut oil are rarely seen to cause a chemical irritation especially in children. Those used to this practice may well continue ; avoidable in children though.
.... and hydrogen peroxide ?
This is really something that makes one feel that the ear is being cleaned because of it's efferversence. Use of this chemical is definitely not advisable because it can cause perforation of thin drums. Thin ear drums are quite common findings even in asymptomatic people. They are especially common in people who have had history of discharging ears.
How should one scratch the ear in case of itching ?
Home made buds using clean cotton coated with a generous quantity of ointment and used gently should be ideal.
