Ear Wax is Your Friend! by Melissa K. Rodriguez

>> So let's talk about ear wax.

I know, I know, the first thing youthought when I said ear wax is eww.

But let me tell you, ear wax is a good thing.

It's in your body for a reason.

So first thing I'm going to say,you cannot clean your own ears.

Anything you stick in there, you may get someout, but most likely you're pushing more in.

So I'm going to talk to you alittle bit about your ear canal.

So in your ear canal — that's the part in here– you should never put anything in your ear.

Q-tips, even if you look on the box of a Q-tip, it's made for taking offmakeup and other things.

It's not made to go in your ear.

It's too small.

There's a lot of delicate thingsin there, and if you don't know where you're at, you could do some damage.

So people say, well, howam I going to clean my ear? Well, that's the good news.

Your ear is self-cleaning.

The reason you have ear wax isbecause your ear could get infected.

It could get viruses.

So that ear wax has an acid that killsany bacteria that would get in your ear.

At the same time, it's kind of sticky.

And so as it's traveling down theseteeny, tiny little hairs in your ear, it's picking up any debris thatshould float into your ear.

As it's hanging there, it dries a little bitand then it floats right out of your ear.

Just like your skin is constantlyregenerating, so is the inside of your ear.

So just leave it alone andlet it take care of itself.

Now, sometimes people may create too muchwax, or their ear might be very small or very curved, and the wax gets stuck.

That does happen.

It's what we call a wax impaction.

Again, this isn't something thatI recommend you clean yourself.

Go to your hearing care provider or to yourdoctor and have it cleaned professionally.

We need to have it cleaned bysomeone who can actually see in your ear and they know what's there.

The skin inside your ear is verysensitive, so if you start digging around, you can break the skin, youcan create infections.

So don't worry about it; the waxis there to keep your ear healthy, and it's not there for youto need to clean it out.

So don't worry about your ear wax.

It's there for a purpose, and it's thereto keep your ear clean and healthy.

[ Background sounds ].

Source: Youtube subtitles