Wax, wax, and more… you guessed it! Wax!
Recently one of our clients told me he had spent over $100 on ear candles trying to get rid of the blocked feeling he was experiencing. When I assessed his ears I could see that both canals were completely occluded with a large amount of wax/debris. Despite spending so much money this poor gentleman had not made any progress in relieving the building pressure in his ears, so had come to see us. Fortunately I was able to quickly clear his ears for him and he left feeling very relieved and much happier.
Ear candling, or ear coning, is the practice of placing a lit, cone-shaped candle into the ear. Generally, the candle is inserted through a foil or paper plate to catch hot wax or ash that may fall from the candle. After the procedure, the practitioner usually cuts the candle open vertically to show the patient the material that was drawn out of the ear. The heat from the candle is claimed to create a vacuum which sucks out the wax.
It’s a lovely theory, but unfortunately as yes there isn’t any valid scientific evidence on the benefits of ear candling, and certainly no scientific evidence that ear candling pulls out debris from the ear canal. In fact, doctors don’t recommend this practice because it’s simply considered dangerous and ineffective.
So what is all that stuff inside the candle? It’s likely a mixture of burned wax residue and fabric. This debris shows up when a candle is burned regardless of whether it’s been placed in an ear.
Ear candling does do something though; it increases the risk of burns, the risk of fire, the risk of ash falling into the ear canal, and the risk of not getting appropriate medical attention for underlying medical conditions.
The practitioners of Total Ear Hygiene are university trained with many years of experience in ear hygiene and find the practice of ear candling at odds with both science and common sense. Put simply, if you want to spend money on dangerous and expensive mini-fires right next to your head, ear candling is the solution.
