Appropriate Ear Cleaning Practices
Ears have a remarkable way of keeping themselves clean which is why they need very little external cleaning from your side. The most common practice of ear cleaning is probably the most harmful one: inserting cotton swabs into the ears. This harmful practice can not only cause earwax to push further into the ear canal, it can also cause damage to the eardrum and lead to temporary hearing loss which is why it is best to avoid this practice altogether.
Earwax are the ears’ natural way of keeping themselves clean and are secreted to help absorb foreign particles, dust, and dirt which would otherwise harm your ears. As such, cleaning earwax does nothing in terms of keeping your ears clean since your ears will simply secrete more of it! This means that you actually do not need to do anything at all to try and keep your ears clean since your ears are doing their own cleaning even as you read this article.
Some individuals secrete excessive amounts of cerumen or earwax which can have an adverse effect on your eardrum. In such cases it can become important to employ external cleaning techniques. You can clean your ear at home if you employ the following practices.
Purchase a reliable earwax softening solution which is available at your local drugstore. You can also make some at home using mineral oil, glycerin and hydrogen peroxide, which can be mixed appropriately using instructions found on the internet. Use a sterilized bulb syringe to pour this solution into your ears and keep your head tilted to the opposite side for five to ten minutes to enable the solution to soften the earwax.
After this you can simply drain the solution out by standing over a sink and tilting your head to the other side so that the solution drains out. Alternatively you can utilize a cotton ball to absorb the solution from the outer ear. After the solution has drained out, simply flush your ears by tilting your head while pouring lukewarm water into your ears via a bulb syringe in such a way that the water flows out of your ears. This will loosen any remaining earwax and let it exit your ears.
Even though the above step can be used for home cleaning purposes, it is highly recommended to obtain the help of a qualified medical professional to clean your ears to prevent infection or damage to the ears. Keeping your ears clean is very easy since there is very little you have to do to keep them clean. Simply stop using unsafe cleaning practices and you will find that your ears do a pretty good job of keeping themselves clean in the first place.