What You Need to Understand About Earwax Buildup

When you shower, always remember to wash your ears. Whenever you say that, you unavoidably use your “parent voice”. Maybe you even recall getting that advice as a child. As you get caught up in past nostalgia, that kind of memory can take you back to simpler times.

But it’s also great advice. Your hearing can be substantially impacted by out-of-control earwax. Even worse, this organic substance can solidify in place making it challenging to clean out. In a nutshell, the cleaner you keep your ears, the better off you’ll be.

Excessive earwax? Eww!

Earwax is, well, sort of gross. That’s a viewpoint that most individuals share. But earwax does have a purpose. Produced by specialized glands in your ear and pushed outwards by your jaw’s chewing motion, earwax can help keep dust and dirt out of your ears.

So your ears will stay clean and healthy when they generate the ideal amount of earwax. However counterintuitive it seems, the truth is that earwax itself isn’t a sign of poor hygiene.

The problems start when your ears produce too much earwax. And, understandably, it can sometimes be a little bit difficult to tell when a healthy quantity of earwax starts to outweigh its advantages (literally).

What does accumulated earwax do?

So, what kind of impact does excess earwax have? There are several issues that could arise due to out-of-control earwax or earwax that builds up over time. Those problems include:

• Dizziness: Your ability to maintain balance depends heavily on your inner ear. You can suffer from bouts of dizziness and balance issues when your inner ear is having trouble.
• Tinnitus: Tinnitus is a condition where you hear a phantom buzzing or ringing in your ears. Earwax buildup can cause tinnitus symptoms to worsen or to emerge.
• Infection: Excess earwax can lead to ear infections. Sometimes, that’s because the earwax can lock in fluid where it ought not to be.
• Earache: One of the most prevalent signs of excess earwax is an earache. It doesn’t have to hurt too much (though, in some cases it can). This is normally a result of the earwax creating pressure someplace it shouldn’t.

These are just a few. Ignored earwax can cause painful headaches. Excessive earwax can interfere with the functionality of hearing aids. This means that you may think your hearing aids are malfunctioning when the real issue is a bit too much earwax.

Can your hearing be impacted by earwax?

Well, yes it can. One of the most common issues associated with excess earwax is hearing loss. Usually producing a kind of conductive hearing loss, earwax builds up in the ear canal, preventing sound waves and vibrations from getting in. The problem normally goes away when the earwax is removed, and usually, your hearing will return to normal.

But there can be long-term damage caused by excess earwax, especially if the buildup gets severe enough. The same is true of earwax-caused tinnitus. It’s usually temporary. But the longer the excess earwax hangs around (that is, the longer you neglect the symptoms), the greater the risk of long-term damage.

Prevention, treatment, or both?

If you want to protect your hearing, then it makes sense to keep an eye on your earwax. It’s improper cleaning, not excess production that causes buildup in most cases (a cotton swab, for example, will frequently compact the earwax in your ear rather than getting rid of it, eventually leading to a blockage).

It will usually call for professional eradication of the wax that has become hardened to the point that you can’t get rid of it. The sooner you get that treatment, the sooner you’ll be capable of hearing again (and the sooner you’ll be capable of cleaning your ears the right way).

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