What is earwax - and should you get rid of it? - Henry C. Ou
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- Опубліковано 1 кві 2024
- Explore why earwax forms, its purpose in our health, and whether or not we should be trying to get rid of it.
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Grooming paraphernalia has been found in numerous archeological sites, many of which have included earwax removal tools. And earwax evacuation remains a popular hygienic habit today. But what is earwax? And are the efforts to eliminate it actually good for us? Henry C. Ou explores the important role earwax plays in our health.
Lesson by Henry C. Ou, directed by Yuriy Polyashko, Max Zaglotskyi, Darvideo Animation Studio.
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"No human earwax, wet or dry, would make a good candle"
TED ED answering the real questions
Fr
Confirming Mythbusters' findings.
But why? They can't just say that and not give an explanation.
Next question: is ogre earwax made of the same stuff? 🤔
@@NinjaFlibble Finally, someone mentioned this!
Me eating peanut butter while watching this was a mistake.
That's funny, exactly what I was eating while watching😂
😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
😁😁😁
perfect timing :)
Oily and waxy
Yummy 😮
My craziest moment as a kid was pulling an insect completely mummified in earwax out of my ear. Never doubted the usefulness of earwax since.
🔥
Wow, my biggest fear is an insect crawling into my ear
Glad it wasn't a dinosaur fossil 😁
Mmm extra protein
2 words.. Night
mare
fuel
TedEx should consider adding audio to their videos.
Lmao this was funny
Obligatory "ermmm... Maybe you should try to pick the excess wax that's in your ears because the video HAS audio ☝️🤓" comment
This is so underrated 😭😭
😂😂😂😂
@@thatwarlock7512LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOO
I just heard my earwaxes speak: "Don't you dare get rid of me."
That's the snail in your head
XD
lol
bro sounds like you be dealing with some mental illness there
Me too...
4:35 There are even candles for that purpose that are actually designed to look like ear wax at the core, so that the debris it leaves behind makes you think you got the gunk out!!
You could sniff it to determine if it's ear wax or not, it has a unique odour.
sooo many gimmicky fraudulent products and services out there..
@@ImHeadshotSniper Welcome to late stage capitalism!
@@lillywho true, but to be fair, i partially blame unscientific traditions for enabling a society of believers of these traditions to be exploited by things they don't understand. this exploitation has been happening before capitalist societies existed.
speaking of which, i feel like a large majority of ancient cultural traditions such as medicines which turned out to be provably useless or mildly toxic, were probably embedded with old narcissists obsessed with being called "wise", dictating how the world works.
i know it's a huge afterthought to look down on people of that time when information was hard to come by, but when you learn about something as simple and fundamental as the scientific method, or some ancient form of it, we really could have been flying through determining whether or not things were true thousand of years before we finally did, but we didn't, i feel largely because of completely baseless traditions zombifying peoples beliefs.
@@lillywho Just capitalism really. Snake oil type products have always been sold, going back centuries.
Was just cleaning my ears out when this popped up in my notifications. How convenient.
FBI loves u
Same here!
We hope you enjoyed our algorithm
Yet I have not thought about ear wax, wax, ears or anything like it for weeks. I'm not amazed.
Recently learned this hard way. Bad allergies irritated my inner ear and it was difficult to hear. I thought the issue was too much earwax, so I used an ear wax remover. Took a shower, water got in and both ears got horrible infections. Absolute agony for 2 weeks. After such an agonizing experience, I'll never purposefully try to remove earwax for as long as I live.
Did your hearing difficulty go away on its own after a few days
I feel you. In my case (though not sure if it's also due to shower water getting in) I occasionally get vertigo from over cleaning my ears and removing earwax. I try to be more careful when doing so but it still happens, like just this morning.
I was born with abnormally, narrow canals and when I was in my teens, I ended up getting an infection in one of them. I have tried so many different methods for getting earwax and there’s only one that actually works. I bought an earwax removal tool that can connect to my phone which allows me to see inside my ear while I am scooping earwax out. The tool has a camera and its own Wi-Fi, which means that I can actually see where the tool goes by looking at my phone. Also, Debrox makes a huge difference. If you have a severe amount of earwax in your ear canals, you can soften it by dropping a couple drops of it for a few minutes.
I had a similar experience. It would happen regularly, but I found using an ear scoop to clear out just a small amount near the edge was enough to make it easier for the earwax to push out preventing it from happening again.
@@Kaiverze Hmm, maybe that's why I've been getting vertigo more often these days. I'll try not clearing the wax out to see if I feel better.
My friend is a med student studying to be an ENT (ear nose throat). The amount of ranting I've heard about q-tips and ear candling is amazing.
My dad works in the medical field and used to rant about Q Tips lol
5:22 Ah-ha! This settles the Over Ear Headphones Vs. Ear Buds debate! It totally knew I was on the right side with the former.
who debates that
@@Gabbro_1 High quality IEMs vs Headphones are actually a rather debated topic among audiophiles.
wtf? thats so obvious! did you really need a 5 minute video to tell you what your brain already knew?
@@its_dey_matetf is an audiophile? a person attracted to audios?
@@mar35962 I initially thought so, apparently it's just guys who are *very* nerdy about audio.
I got the notification as I was picking my ear
They are watching you. 😂
As someone who has managed to clean out the wax thoroughly enough my doctor has commented on it, it’s not worth succeeding. Because once it’s that clean you can feel it forming again/migrating. The only way to stop that feeling (besides continuing the cycle) is to let it build up again to healthy levels. Also leaves your ears vulnerable and more likely to ache from activities that expose your ears to weather/temperature changes.
Keep going strong ted!
This is definitely the most beautiful video on earwax I've seen today.
Also incredibly cool of Mr. Narrator to read my thought on candles
I'm SO glad earwax buildup was mentioned, I was getting worried for a minute there! Mine got so bad that I was partially deaf (well, my hearing was muffled) for three days! I had to go to the ER to get it all out. Gonna have to invest in those gentle methods cuz the buildup is constant.
Thank you, TED-ED, for consistently producing such wonderful videos!
Thank you TED-ED for creating wonderful videos!❤🎉🤗
Realizing this was probably not the best video to watch on my lunch break. Interesting nonetheless.
At the end, that was an especially good animation of a guitar player! I play guitar, and so often, animators get something wrong. My bet is that this animator is a guitar player! :)
Thank you!
Just the thing i was wondering.
Bravooo
This was a fascinating animation to watch.
5:23
Giving your ears a break from earplugs and earphones
*Me using earphones while watching this video*
👁️👄👁️
Lmfao same
Use headphones instead :P
Me too!
I need to charge my (over ear) headphones...
Same! Anyway, earplugs and headphones are actually better for ears than NOISE... I guess 😅
i never enjoy using earphones
Playback speed 1.5x. Thank me later
Thanks🙏
What for?
2x for me
Thank you ❤
Thank you. You’re a legend
Thank ypu, Ted Ed. My ears badly need this lecture.
I'm one of those people who has issues with earwax buildup. I problem is mostly anatomical, I have very narrow ear canals and that makes it prone to buildup. Physiology can also play a part; if you have oily skin, that can also be a contributing factor. IDK if having dry ear wax makes you less prone to buildup, but I'd imagine it does.
I do clean my ear canals myself *AGAINST THE ADVICE* of every ENT I've been to, but in my defense, it does reduce my ENT visits. I only do it once a week unless the buildup is severe. I soak with hydrogen peroxide (baby oil also works) for 3 minutes and I do use swabs, but only the small ones, and be very gentle, and only on the outer half of the ear canal; that's were the buildup happens.
I imagine they give that blanket advice with the lowest common denominator in mind... or because ear canals are different so they preach caution instead.
That or Big Ear just wants to ensure they are needed.
Im not alone!! I used to see an ENT every 2 years to get my canals cleared. Havent been in 7 years since I started occasionally putting H2O2, but i dont use swabs. The wax falls out on its own a couple times a year. My left ear just cleared itself out the other day!
it's worth noting that H2O2 is 2% over the counter in the u.s.a. but around 20% in australia for instance. it takes consecutive days of 90 minute treatments until my ears open up (this is preceded by a sloow period of 45 minutes of regular periodic single bubble like a clock breaking through, done this for decades). every morning i pull my ears by sticking my fingers in it and pumping them for about 20 minutes a piece until the milk stops coming out. they will be milkable again in an hour or so. the finger pump has done much more than H2O2 ever had for opening up infected sinuses. what happens when they don't get milked isn't going to go over well. and screw ENTs bunch of hos. i've put everything but pee (often recommended) in my ears over the years. garlic and coconut oil is the best way to remove infection (i don't know about fancy antibiotics, antibiotics mess with my hearing when they're not intended to). my problem comes from the u.s. government. i went to school with gabrielle giffords. i know who the second man is. he goes to a lodge where the men wear aprons.
I have a friend who has the same issue! When he was a baby he said they had to put tubes in his ears
I clean mine out fairly often with a small metal loop tool, with a plastic handle. It makes it less likely that I push wax further into my ear, as with cotton buds, and the width of the loop stops it going in too far.
If I don't clean them my hearing suffers and I get pain in my ears which affects my balance. This video is too "one size fits all", for my liking.
I had no idea your heritage affects what kind of earwax you have😮, you really learn something new everyday 😊
Very educative video! Thank you Ted-Ed!!
Deep respect TedEd
So interesting watching this as I just recently removed some bad earwax build up....basically impactions. Thank God for Debrox and tools actually made to extract the stuff😮💨
This is such a precious channel
Thanks!
"Health care providers have tried and true methods of gently clearing blockages." Based on personal experience, this tends to consist of blasting water directly into the ear until whatever is blocking the ear washes out. It's the method I use now at home. I'll never forget when I was at the doctor's office, getting my ear cleaned, and felt a sudden rush of relief when a particularly large wax clot got dislodged and the nurse said, "Wow, that's a big one! What would you like to name it?"
That bedside manner is legendary
I’ve been through this before too. The nurse just kept blasting water into my ear as I layed there in pain 😂
I had this treatment many times until mid-adulthood. Once I neglected removing the plug for too long and ended up with a minor surgery. Another time a doctor punctured my ear drum while removing the plug (very painful). I then started carefully removing earvax using a paperclip (squeezed into a narrower bend about 2 mm wide) about monthly, and never visited the ear doctor since. No plugs, period. I've been fine with this practice for about twenty years.
Only recently I discovered that many ancient cultures and some today's ones (e.g., China) have an earvax removal "spoon" as a standard household item. It's all too bad I could not buy one, was never advised by the doctors of it, and had to re-invent this tool myself AGAINST THE WESTERN MEDICAL ADVICE.
The most useless medical advice I received was from a doctor in Singapore who offered to surgically widen my ear canal. The paper clip solved that problem.
Amazing!!
This is one of the most complicated things I have been thinking and googling about. I like this video but there are more complicated ways of how you can effectively clean ear wax. Which was something I was expecting, instead this video talks about how it comes about, looking forward to how we can effectively clean these without damaging the ear drum.
It didn't bother me until it built up so much in my ear that it blocked about half the sound that got through. It was a quick fix though just have to let the doctor clean it out they squirt water in your ear to loosen it and it makes you feel like your brains are getting scrambled.
Yeah, I needed to hear that
I tend to have a lot of earwax so I was religiously tried to clean it but as the video suggested I just got a build up and many times couldn’t hear much. Then I stopped cleaning it all together and now it’s much better and I have no problems. Q tips are really not good to clean your ears
I've used cotton swabs to clean my ear canals for over 30 years and never once had a build-up problem, and whenever I see my doctor, he often comments on how clean my ear canals are. It really specific to each person whether it's a good idea or not. I probably have wider-than-normal ear canals.
@@pvanukoff Beyond pushing some earwax further back, the reason I've heard q-tips aren't good for cleaning ears is small bits of cotton can get stuck in your ears and cause infections. Just something to be aware of, there are other tools that won't cause that problem
I thank my asian genes for dry earwax.
I'm currently having a problem with earwax blockage so this was very handy, thank you :))
I really love your explanations of music. I learnt a lot from your videos. I wish you all the happiness you deserve. Take love.
- Duronto. From Bangladesh.
amazing
Wow! Really nice animation
Yay! Ted Ed, you guys make the best and most interesting videos ever! Slay! ❤😉😻
I've had both dry and wet earwax at different times, didn't know this was supposed genetically tied to ethnicity. I am mixed race East-Asian and European, so idk if that might have something to do with it.
My face can also simetimes be quite dry and other times be quite oily, which might be related if it one of the components of earwax is the same kind of oils.
Animators had fun with this one, well done.
I love your channel!
The rubber tips on earbuds gave me contact dermatitis in my ears, 2+ years after I stopped using them I still have trouble with my canals which now produce very little wax and are constantly itchy.
I experience itchiness a lot there.
Vídeo muito esclarecedor! Obrigado 👏👏👏👏👏
Wish I'd known about the earbud thing sooner. A few years ago I upped my earbud usage like 200%, not knowing there would be any side effects. After like a year and a half I woke up one morning and was basically deaf in one ear. Blockage. My doctor referred me to an audiologist, but because this was in the middle of the pandemic I couldn't get an appointment for half a year. The whole thing was driving me so crazy I decided to buy a syringe and try to remove the wax manually. Not only did it not work, I gave myself tinnitus 🙃and now I can't really use earbuds anymore. Clean your ears kids!
Clean your ears, yes, but if you can avoid using earbuds, do that too. Make sure you clean the earbuds well as well. Wiping it with tissue paper or something isn't enough
@@wolfferoni What do you think is enough?
I want to clean my in-ear headphone but don't know what to use since my headphone ear cushion make out of silicone/rubber
An ENT one said tome that every time I shower I should allow the water to glick into each ear canal a few times and then glick out. I've been doing this for years, and have been told by other ENTs that my ears are the cleanest they've seen in a while. Best and simplest hygiene habit I have.
Informative video, was actually wondering about that 😂
The end was soooooo good😂❤
There's a relatively a new tech, an earwax removal stick with a micro camera in its tip, allowing you to carefully remove the wax without pushing it or hurting your canal.
TedEd really waxed eloquently with this video!
too slow for me, put it in x1.25 to fully appreciate it.
Ted-ED video starring Seth Probably better known as Saffron Olive!
*Thanks for the Content!*
2:27 *that's a good one Ted!* 😂
Please make a video about nasal boogers next, and what to do with them best.
Who cleans ears by sticking it all the way inside?!
You do it after shower, when there is water in your ears, and you slowly move the stick inside, spinning it. That way the watery wax is left on the stick and nothing gets pushed inside.
That is exactly what I do too.
@@dominicbailey7558 Been doing it for nearly all my life, no problems with ears whatsoever.
Yeah, exactly lol
I've been trying to refrain from cleaning my ears with cotton swabs. As someone with a perforated eardrum, I'm prone to getting infections which is always a bummer.
But it feels so good!
Whoever decided to market towards getting rid of it did a phenomenal job
What if I get both types of waxes? Dry and wet? And no, not after swimming or bathing
Do the vacuum ear cleaners sold in shops work?
I'm a musician and I have frequent wax buildup (and prone to ear infections. Legit I get about four a year). I've noticed that when My ears are getting clogged/there's the beginning of an infection, music sounds sharp, so I end up playing my instrument out of tune. That's usually how I can tell.
As a person with hyperacusis, I can say that earwax serves as a protector of the ear nerve from loud sounds in the first place.
👋 Hi, I think so. How long have you been in hyperacusis? How do you live with it? I think I also have hyperacusis, but there is no audiologist in my region. All I can do so far is online research from professionals.
@litabouttathep4413 I had acoustic damage to my ear and tinnitus appeared with hyperacusis. Now, even after 5 years, I still experience discomfort from loud noises or vibration of the eardrum from certain sounds, such as foil. The first year was severe that I couldn't go outside without earplugs. But over time, my condition became more tolerable. I had to relearn how to enjoy sounds and music. My favorite music from the 80s helps me a lot😅
I just clean my ears now.
It's so satisfying after not doing it for a week.
Lots of ear wax.
you did not need to mention that last part.
Do Upil episode please! I love Ngupil..
Early this year, I faced a hazard because of my carelessness while cleaning my hear. Had to do a minor operation in my ear.
I once shared with my primary care doc that in the shower I would regularly adjust the spray to as warm as comfortable then, in turn, tilt my head under the spray to rinse the ear, tilting well the other way to drain it of the excess water. He liked that plan.
Just what I wanted was another lecture about how bad qtips are for the ears…. Thanks again!
Removing it is my favourite pastime 😂
I bought a re-useable silicone ear swab which is too short and soft to cause any damage a while ago. It looks like a Lego piece with the number 43093. It's easy to clean with a bit of soapy water.
There are times when I feel this strange moving sensation in my ear (scary 😭) and then my earwax just randomly fall out, it’s a funny feeling. Now I know that actually is what is supposed to happened ig
I have cauliflower ear from wrestling and ever since I got it, there seems to be an abnormal amount of earwax in that ear. Unfortunately, the cauliflower is in the ear canal and not in the upper portion of my ear. Could this build up be because the new wax forming is having trouble getting pushed out or the ear canal? This has always been a bizarre mystery to me.
Finally the Ted-ed video we were waiting for 😂
Ang tainga ay mahalagang bahagi ng ating katawan
I like earigation the best. I got lots of ear wax and it really messes up my hearing so a weekly rinse works great.
I go to an ENT clinic to do EAR TOILET every 4 to 6 months. Theybalso give me sodium bicarbonate solution ear drops. Ear toilet involves suctioning (vacuuming) the impacted ear wax
In medschool we don’t know much about that candle thingies, never thought it was dangerous either 🤔
My dad could hardly hear for almost 2 years and I thought he was going deaf and he didn’t want to go to check it out for a long time.then one day he comes and says he can hear normally!! He finally went to the doctor and his ear was plugged with ear wax!!
I had it once too and I didn’t notice the hearing loss but I didn’t pass a hearing test in the army.
Also don’t use those swabs to clean your ear! I once had the cotton part stuck in my ear canal,had to go to the doctor to take it out.
5:25 Me using air pods to watch this 😂😂😂
so cool! i'll keep fiddling with it, nice try though!!!
👋🍜Im south east asian, my left ear has wet earwax while my right ear has dry earwax... Upon my research i have european bloodline..🇪🇺🔎
The fact that they are different makes me wonder if you are a genetic chimera! That would be really cool.
@@EmpressoftheLoneIslands how i wish that was possible ....hoping😚🙏
I was so addicted to scratching my ear canal, barely clean my ears anymore, probably for the best
Debrox ear drops are the best for removal.Just add drops for 2 to 3 days and flush it out with a bulb water. A lot of times it is included in the ear drop package
As a person with East Asian genes I'm happy that I can experience the feeling of satisfaction after cleaning my ears with my earwax removal tool. Pity I haven't been able to find another identical one that I use on Amazon or at local pharmacies. When I forgot where I placed it, I was in a state of disarray for a couple of weeks.
Every few years I have enough buildup that it plugs my hearing entirely (narrow canals and oily wax) (its especially bad after swimming) and the scraper things my doctor used always just made the issue way worse since visibility was poor. The only solution that I’ve found actually works is going to an ENT specialist and having it vaccuumed out with a special machine
Same buildup, but my specialist used the water syringe. After 3 times i started doing it myself at home. Just be extra careful and it's no longer a problem.
Along with over the counter ear medicines they actually have specially made syringes that, after multiple days of using the ear medication, if there is still too much build-up, you make a half water-half hydrogen peroxide solution and spray it into your ear. Important note: Make sure the mix isn't too cold or too hot as to not injure yourself or even cause yourself to faint potentially if it's too high in low of temperature.
I've been doing this for 7 years now due to having horrible wax buildup my entire life after an initial doctor visit where a doctor told me all of this. I have only had to see a doctor once since, and it was because I had forgotten that time that it was supposed to be a water and peroxide solution once and instead only used water, giving myself an ear infection as such.
You can also just wash your ears with warm water and soap lather every time you shower. Just make sure to thoroughly rinse and dry afterwards, with a soft cotton cloth and natural evaporation.
My earwax builds up very quickly. Sometimes it is hard and other times its soft. It can get as big as a marble, but just a light blockage coating my ears affects my hearing. The wax causes my ears to get very itchy due to bacteria. Q-tips were a bad trip. The wax is very problematic for my hearing aids. Going to the doctor was a big relief, but it was only once a year. Finally, advice from both my doctor and my audiologist helped me deal with it myself. Now once or twice a month I use ear drops to loosen up the wax and the next day I use an elephant ear to flush my ears out with a 50% solution of hydrogen peroxide and distilled water. This is certainly something to be careful with because hydrogen peroxide changes the PH levels of your ears. And from experience I can tell you that overdoing hydrogen peroxide it is a bad trip--I used to soak my ears in it. Now I just use it at half strength just to flush them out. So now for the first time I have found a method that works for me. This is not for everyone and if you do resort to it, I recommend consulting a doctor first.
I’ve heard of earwax being used by artists being added to tempra paints to discourage the formation of bubbles in the medium.
I just had audiometry like 1 hour ago. And this video came in lol
Google knows your interests
I’m just about to turn 45 and I’ve been using q-tips all my life. This is the best argument I’ve heard against such practice but I’m still not totally convinced to stop using them
nicee
My earwax is often darker and stickier, but sometimes it has a creamier color and consistency similar to pus. If my earwax is creamy like pus, could it mean I have an ear infection?
What about the one in the pedicure kit?
The tools are to clean the ears of sand, dust, dirt, wood shavings, and stone dust. Not just ear wax. If you live in the desert, wind blown sand gets into every opening. If you dig ditches or carve stone the same happens.
Earwax is a problem with hearing aids and filters are used to stop earwax from getting into the speaker or transducer. My aids have two filters, an outer and an inner fitted into the acoustic canal. What I don't understand is how the inner filter gets clogged with earwax. It is as if the earwax can travel as vapor and condense on objects. Can someone enlighten me on the properties of earwax, does it begin as a vapor before condensing on the walls of the ear canal. Thanks
Omg that’s crazy. All I did was THINK about using my ear buds to clean out my ears and I was recommended this
I always thought the earwax are sound sediments when sound passes through the ear mesh. And the color of the sound is yellow.
My doctor told me about fifteen years ago that my ears were wax factories - he even brought some nurses in to see the huge hard lumps and the gooey, runny stuff. It took three or four visits before everything was removed. I started getting them syringed every year. Over the last few years he uses some sort of vacuum machine, hopefully risking less damage to the ear drum. He half-jokingly tells me, ear cleaning has paid for his new Land Rover.
Today people use battery operated hair cutter to get rid of hair in their ears. When doing this , make sure your ear is facing in a downward direction. If not the hair will fall into your ear and mix with ear wax to help create blockage . Also use a thin damp cloth to clean any hair out . Once a month use warm water spray from shower into the ear to help remove wax. Good free advice that has worked well for me over the years.
@@rayRay-pw6gz I now do the warm water spray almost daily in the shower and it certainly keeps the wax loose and runny. I'll remember to try to avoid hair falling in next time my ears are having a shave. Thanks.