hi everybody my name is Rhys barber from
audiology associates and coming up on
today's episode we're going to show you
how to clean your ears without using a
q-tip hi everybody my name is Rhys
barber I'm the audiologist here at
audiology associates and today we're
talking about how we keep our ears nice
and clean now when we talk about ear
cleaning most people are familiar with
q-tips
now q-tips aren't designed to be used in
an ear canal and it does state that on
their packaging as well the reason being
is that when you use a q-tip when you
push that into the ear canal actually
pushes the ear wax further in and can cause
some damage so if you're a bit too
enthusiastic you run the risk of either
damaging the ear canal wall or in the
worst-case scenario actually perforating
the eardrum as well the other thing that
the q-tip will do is it will push the
ear wax together and compress it together so
what you end up with then is something
called impacted ear wax which is where the
ear wax hardens and become so dense that it
won't migrate out automatically now the
ear canal is designed to migrate ear wax out
on its own it has been doing this for
thousands of years long before q-tips
were around so in most cases you don't
need to do anything at all or intervene
at all with your ear canals and it will
expel the ear wax quite effectively
don't forget that ear wax has some really
important jobs in the ear canal it picks
up any dirt and debris that's in there
and it's also slightly acidic so it
stops your ear canal from getting
infected so it does a really really good
job in your ear canal and if you mess up
that migration process it can cause
complications so what can we do if we
can't use q-tips to keep our ear canals
nice and clear well there's a few things
you can do to help that migration
process along the first thing is when
you have a bath or a shower what you can
do is let a little bit of water just
trickle into the ear canal and then just
Empty it back out again and that
will take any looser bits of debris or
any dirt from the ear canal and the
looser bits of ear wax and pull them out
with the water as well so they all come
out quite naturally when that happens
when you get out of the bath of the
shower the second thing I would suggest
you do is just to give the outer part of
the ear canal a little bit of a wipe
just at the entrance to the ear canal now I
wouldn't use a cotton bud for that one
or a q-tip what I would use is a
washcloth or a flannel along the
outside edge don't forget don't push
anything down into the ear canal
because you can push any ear wax that's
managed to come to the outer part back
in again and it will dry out and cause a
few more issues now the other thing that
we use quite regularly here at audiology
associates is something called earol which
is an olive oil spray now olive oil is
really good you don't necessarily have
to use the spray you can get it in a
drop form and you can get that either
from your local pharmacy or chemist or
you can order it online to be delivered
to your door now what the olive oil does
it's a perfectly natural product which
means it when you put it into the
ear canal does a few things it helps to
moisturize the skin of the ear canal
which is gonna keep it lovely and
healthy but the other thing it's going
to do is it's going to get absorbed by
the ear wax now it stops that ear wax from
drying and becoming a little bit sticky
so if you have got any plugs or or
larger bits of ear wax in there that will
help to just loosen that off the ear canal
walls so when you do have your next bath
or shower that will work its way out on
its own now the reason we like to
use earol here is because you have
a taper on the end of the applicator you
can pop it into your ear canal depress the
top and it puts a very fine spray into
the ear canal so it works really easily
but you can also put a drop into the ear
ear canal and just massage the outer part of
the ear canal just to work it down into
there and get it really absorbed well by
that but that ear wax in there now if you do
get a blockage of your ear wax in your ear
ear canal what can you do to try and shift
that along especially at the moment
where it's difficult for us to get to
any practitioners then what you can do
my first thing would say use a bit of
olive oil okay use that for a few days
massage that into the ear canal just
allow that to penetrate into the ear wax you
may well find that your symptoms get
worse for a day or two and then get
better because the olive oil as it gets
absorbed into the ear wax the ear wax expands
out so any small blockages there and can
get blocked with this olive oil but keep
at it for a few more days and you should
notice that that starts to decrease
again and you'll get some of your
hearing back if you've got a really
persistent or stubborn piece of ear wax in
there and the olive oil you've used for
a few days but it hasn't really worked
what I would use next is something
called sodium bicarbonate now you can
get this as a pre-prepared solution you
can get it from online retailers or from
a pharmacy what you do with that is just
put a couple of drops in your ear canal
and same with the olive oil just massage
it in
Bicarbonate will work by breaking down the
fats that hold the ear wax together so it'll
make that ear wax a little bit more runny if
you use that in conjunction with the
shower trick we told you at the
beginning of the bath trick then what
you should find is that ear wax will migrate
out really easily now one thing to
remember when you use in anything like
sodium bicarbonate because it's alkaline
in nature it will cause a little bit of
irritation to the ear canal in some
cases okay so if you do feel any
irritation to the ear canal when using it
STOP and go back to using the
olive oil again if you've got a
particularly stubborn piece of ear wax and
what you can do is use a combination of
the two so use olive oil one day sodium
bicarb the next and you should find that
will help out a lot with your with your
ear issues if that doesn't work then
what you do need to do is find a
reputable practitioner and get some
micro suction done okay always check the
credentials of where you're going just
to make sure that that person is
accredited to carry out that work on
your ear canals but that is the most
effective ways of keeping your ear
ear canals nice and clear so throw your
q-tips in the bin you don't need to use
them anymore use the tips and tricks
I've talked about today and if you do
get a blockage don't forget you can use
olive oil you can use sodium bicarbonate
and that should help that problem out
for you well I hope you found this video
helpful and if you do if you got my
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