Ear Wax Accumulation: What You Need to Understand

Don’t forget to wash your ears. It’s hard not to say that in your “parenting” voice. Perhaps when you were a kid you even recall your parents telling you to do it. As you get wrapped up in past nostalgia, that sort of memory can take you back to simpler times.

But that advice can be pretty helpful. Your hearing can be substantially affected by out-of-control earwax. Even worse, this organic compound can harden in place making it challenging to clean out. Bottom line, you’ll be best off keeping those ears clear.

Excessive earwax? Eww!

Okay, earwax is not the most pleasing of substances. And we’re not going to try to change your mind about that. But it’s actually important for your ear’s health. Earwax is manufactured by glands in your ears and is then pushed out when you chew in order to keep your ears free of dust and dirt.

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 is not a sign of poor hygiene.

Too much earwax is where the problem starts. And, understandably, it can sometimes be a little bit challenging to tell when a healthy amount of earwax begins to outweigh its advantages (literally).

What does excess earwax do?

So, what happens as a consequence of excess earwax? Earwax that gets out of control and, over time, accumulates, can cause several problems. Those problems include:

• Dizziness: Your inner ear is vital to your balance. So when accumulated ear wax causes your inner ear to have issues, your balance can suffer, causing you to feel dizzy.
• Earache: An earache is one of the most common symptoms of excess earwax. Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt that bad, and other times it can hurt a lot. This is usually a result of the earwax creating pressure someplace it shouldn’t.
• Infection: Excess earwax can lead to ear infections. Sometimes, that’s because the earwax can trap fluid where it shouldn’t be.
• Tinnitus: Tinnitus is a condition where you hear a phantom ringing or buzzing in your ears. Tinnitus symptoms can show up or get worse when earwax accumulates inside your ear.

These are just a few. Headaches and discomfort can occur because of uncontrolled earwax buildup. If you wear hearing aids, excess earwax can interfere with them. This means that you may think your hearing aids are malfunctioning when the real problem is a little bit too much earwax.

Can your hearing be affected by earwax?

The short answer is yes. One of the most common problems connected with excess earwax is hearing loss. Usually causing a kind of conductive hearing loss, earwax builds up in the ear canal, preventing sound waves and vibrations from getting in. Your hearing will usually go back to normal after the wax is cleaned out.

But there can be long-term damage caused by accumulated earwax, particularly if the buildup gets extreme enough. The same is true of earwax-related tinnitus. It’s usually temporary. But the longer the excess earwax sticks around (that is, the longer you disregard the symptoms), the greater the danger of long-term damage.

Prevention, treatment, or both?

It’s a good plan to keep track of your earwax if you want to safeguard your hearing. In many cases, earwax buildup is caused not by excess production but by improper cleaning (for instance, blockage is often a result of cotton swabs, which tend to press the earwax further in rather than removing it).

It will usually call for professional removal of the wax that has become hardened to the point that you can’t get rid of it. You’ll be able to start hearing again as soon as you get that treatment and then you can start over, cleaning your ears the right way.