Do Ear Candles Work To Remove Earwax? | Ear Candling Proof!

Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Anthem Arizona, tests ear candles (aka Hopi Ear Candles) and their ability to remove earwax. Until this point, there have been misleading “proof” videos that do not show before and after pictures of the actual ear canal.

Ear Candling Experiment: [ Ссылка ]

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Back in college I was a licensed massage therapist and it was generally accepted inside of the massage therapy world that ear candling was a great way to provide therapeutic relaxation. However, there were therapists that would take this too far and would make claims that it could also remove earwax, cure ear infections, and cure hearing loss.

The theory is that the warmth created by the burning candle would loosen earwax and other debris in the ear, and a suction effect created by the burning flame would pull the warm earwax or other infected material into the candle. On top of this, the crackling sound of the flame would provide a relaxing sensation.

Ultimately, these claims seemed too good to be true, but I’ve never seen proof that it actually works. I mean, I’ve seen the waxy substance left inside of the candle after burning, but never a before and after image of the ear canal.

So I decided to conduct an experiment. So I asked a patient, Heather, who is a retired nurse practitioner and founder of Arizona Healing Alternatives - [ Ссылка ] – to let me see if ear candling actually works.

After performing two attempts at using ear candles to remove her earwax, there was wax inside of the candle, but no change in the wax inside of her ears. Visualization of the ear canal with video otoscopy doesn’t lie. The ear candles were unsuccessful at removing the cerumen/earwax from her ear canals.

Basically, if there really was a suction effect, it was not strong enough to pull the earwax from her ear. If it was strong enough, it probably would have ruptured her eardrum. The eardrum separates the outer ear canal from the middle ear and the inner ear, so it will not actually remove infected material from the middle ear or eustachian tube. If you did happen to have a hole in your eardrum, you would be more likely to drip hot wax into your middle ear space which would require surgery to remove.

Based on this research project, ear candling proves to be an ineffective way to remove earwax. It also puts you at a higher risk of catching your hair on fire, ear infection, and dripping hot wax into your ear.

If you want to use ear candling for relaxation purposes, knock yourself out, I’ll just stick to getting a massage.

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