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Earwax protects the ear canal. The sebaceous glands on the skin produce this mixture of fats to keep the skin’s pH value low, making it harder for germs to survive. The protective layer also traps tiny foreign bodies that have no business in the ear. Lard in the ear, therefore, has nothing to do with a lack of hygiene. It only turns brown when it comes into contact with air.
The risks
Under no circumstances should you try to remove the wax from your ear with cotton buds. “It doesn’t work,” says ENT specialist Steffen Knopke. “You have to think of it like a toilet and a toilet brush,” he explains. The stick only pushes the lard further into the ear.
The second problem is that the protective function of the earwax is nullified. “Earwax is there to trap dust particles,” Prof. Dr. Peter Franz, President of the Austrian ENT Society, once explained to KURIER.
If you regularly clean your ear canal with cotton buds, you destroy this protective film and risk chronic eczema in the ear canal, especially with too frequent use of soaps. According to Franz, the third danger is that the eardrum can be damaged. As a rule, however, no serious injuries occur here, “but slight abrasions are seen repeatedly”.
ENT specialist Knopke advises using a cloth after showering to remove anything that has accumulated directly in the pinna. Otherwise, the following applies: only if the wax blocks the ear does it need to be removed. However, a doctor will then remove it.
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