Ear Wax

Medical Topic of the Day: Nobody gave me a topic yesterday so I guess we are going to have to discuss something disgusting.  Ear wax.  What is it, does it do anything, and why is it so delicious?

Off The Top of My Head:  I am not sure if it serves a particular purpose but many people's ears are jammed full of it.  The technical term is "cerumen impaction" and I have personally noticed that the level of ear wax in your ear directly correlates with your level of personal hygiene.  Although I am sure other things could cause excessive ear wax.

I'm going to go ahead and say that isn't normal.

I don't think ear wax does anything but I am probably wrong.  My working assumption is that it is mostly a collection of dead skin cells that get trapped in your ear canal.  Let's find out. 

My Research Today:  Technically referred to as cerumen, ear wax is a waxy oil secreted by hair folicles and glands that line your ear canal.  And proving me wrong once again, ear wax serves more than one purpose.

1. It protects your ear canal from micro-organisms and bacteria
2. It protects your ear from particles like dust or debris
3. It lubricates and coats the delicate inner ear skin to protect against water

Typically older ear wax makes it's way to the opening of your canal where it is washed away by bathing. However, a few people can produce too much ear wax for their canal to clear naturally and get impactions that way.  You can also jam it into your ear canal being clumsy with a q-tip, but 99 times out of 100 cerumen impaction is caused by not bathing properly.  Other things that can cause impactions are:

• Hearing aide use
• Ear plug use
• Shoving bobby pins in your ear?  What the tits?  Why is that on the list?

This guy has impactions all the time.

That last one is actually on the list.  Approximately 6% of the population suffers from cerumen impactions and it is a leading cause of hearing loss, ear pain, and tinnitis (ringing in your ears).  Cerumen impaction is actually the most common cause of ear complaint in adults.

There are all kinds of drops you can use to soften and remove ear wax including a popular stool softener, Colace.  It comes in drops so don't go jamming capsules in your ears.  In doctor offices we use a Waterpik with extreme prejudice to blast wax out of your ear and a little spoon thing called a curette.  In fact I thought that was what they made Waterpiks for until I saw one in a dentist's office.

Now with filthy ear attachment!

Well I hope you all enjoyed learning about ear wax and proper bathing habits.  Tomorrow we are going to talk about poop unless someone suggests a better topic.

Quest To 180:
10K steps

The MAN:
I don't even know.