Ear Candling

[Davey Do]

"Can you hear me now?!"

Most of us brush and floss our teeth before going to the Dentist. Dentists appreciate that.

I have an appointment today with an Otolaryngologist. An ENT. So I thought I may as well "Candle" my ears.

Anyone familiar with the process? Basically, you hold a lit paraffin-coated tube to your ear, light it, and as it burns, it draws the wax out of your ear. I discussed the procedure years ago with the Surgeon who removed the cholesteatoma from my ear and implanted prosthetic ossicles. He said that he could see no harm in doing it.

Works for me. I usually get a good-sized glob of wax out of my ears and can hear more clearly.

Is there any other Ear Candlers out there?

Dave

[BluegrassRN]

Could it have been the flushing with warm water rather than the candling that cleared the impaction? I fail to see how you can attribute that success to the candle, when you flushed with warm water afterwards.

[KarmaWiseRaven]

Dave,

Have you thought or tried peroxide and a warm ear flush? I have allergy's really bad so i know what ear wax build up can do i also suffer from Tinnitus. Peroxide Flush sounds a lot better and safer to me then ear candling. Ear Candling can cause ear infection or something worse. These are my thoughts use them as you wish

[birthrevolution]

Well, I know for a fact that it worked for my hubby! My husband was having some ear pain. I looked in it with my otoscope and he had a complete wax impaction. I mean, you could see it obstructing the entire ear canal. We tried to get an appointment with his PCP, but he is in a temp office and said he was not set up to remove it. He recommended seeing a specialist. A friend swore by candling, so we decided to try it before we dropped the $ on an ENT. We did the candling then flushed it with warm water and got a TON of wax. The next morning I checked with the otoscope and the canal was completely clear and was not irritated.

This was after we tried nearly every OTC earwax remover on the market which produced NO results (verified by otoscope). It may not work for everyone, and I don't recommend doing any procedure without a doctor's advice, but in my hubby's case it worked and provided instant relief.

It was probably the warm water flush that did it, not the candling. I got the same results after noticing a complete impaction in my partner's ear and just flushing with warm water. Man, was that thing gross when it came out! But SOOOO cool!

[redhead_NURSE98!, ADN, BSN]

Gross!

Couples more sessions and he can join a marbles tournament!!

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

Could it have been the flushing with warm water rather than the candling that cleared the impaction? I fail to see how you can attribute that success to the candle, when you flushed with warm water afterwards.

Because we had tried flushing with warm water alone long before we tried the candle. No results. I attribute it to the heat melting the earwax which allows it to then be flushed. But water alone did not do the trick, trust me.

[rn/writer, RN]

Okay, folks, we're veering into the territory of giving/discussing medical advice and treatment, which, as you all know, is against the AN Terms of Service.

For this thread to remain open, we have to keep things on a more theoretical plain.

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I agree with Fribblet that ear candling, like homeopathy, is pretty much bunk, with no basis in science.

While we're on the subject of ear "hygiene", here's an interesting article. After reading this, I SO want to go to Vietnam. I'm an unapologetic q-tip addict.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17173639?nclick_check=1

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

I'm a q-tip addict myself. I can't go more than a day without cleaning my ears.

I have disimpacted my fair share of ears with nothing but a cut-off butterfly blood collection tube and a big syringe (the more pressure behind the tubing the better). Gotten out some amazing pieces of...I don't want to know.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I've done that with a 20 cc syringe and the catheter from an angiocath.

[Misterbig]

Not sure if it works. I do know that I would ear candle my last girlfriend, and I could only do one side because she would be out cold. She would not even roll over all night after a candling. The next night I would do the other ear. For relaxing it is hard to beat ear candling. There was a big volunteer recall form one of the biggest makers of ear candles. They had so many problems with people burning themselves and others, they just stopped making the candles all together. My ex girlfriend has terrible allergies that make her ears really itch. Ironically guess what helped more than anything. Those five dollar packets of Homeopathic medicine for allergies. I convinced her to just try the Homeopathic stuff. If it is bunk your out five dollars. Well She will not leave the house without those little white pills.

[evolvingrn, BSN, RN]

It's not wax your getting out from your ear. We did a ear candle in each ear and then burned one just on a plate.......they all had the same amount of wax

[Davey Do]

Hey! Thanks for all the replies!

Dave