Earwax has a bit of an image problem. Most of us think of it as something to get rid of, yet it is one of the ways your ears quietly look after themselves. What is interesting is how much it varies from one person to the next. Two people can live in the same house, eat the same food and lead the same sort of life, and still produce very different amounts.
If you have always seemed to make more than your fair share, there is usually a reason for it, and it is almost never anything you have done wrong.
What is earwax actually for?
Earwax, or cerumen to give it its proper name, is made by tiny glands in the outer part of your ear canal. It is not dirt. It traps dust and grit, stops the delicate skin of the canal drying out, and has mild antibacterial properties that help keep infection at bay. Your ears are also self-cleaning: the movement of your jaw when you talk and chew slowly carries old wax outwards, where it dries and falls away without you ever noticing. For most people, most of the time, the whole system works in the background and needs no help at all.
So why do some people make far more than others?
There is rarely a single answer. Usually it comes down to a mix of things you were born with and things about your daily life.
Your genes and the type of wax you make
The kind of earwax you produce is written into your genes. Broadly, people make either wet wax, which is sticky and yellow-brown, or dry wax, which is flakier and paler. This comes down to a single gene, and it tends to run in families and vary between ethnic backgrounds. Wet wax is a little more likely to build up and feel like a blockage, so if a parent was forever mentioning their ears, you may well have inherited the same tendency.
The shape of your ear canal
No two ear canals are the same. Some are narrow, some curve sharply, and some are quite hairy. All of these make it harder for wax to travel out on its own, so it collects instead. This is simply the ear you were built with, and it is one of the most common reasons a person needs a little help clearing wax now and again.
Your age
As we get older, the glands change and the wax we make tends to become drier and harder. Older ears often have coarser hairs in the canal too. Together this means wax shifts less easily and is more likely to pack down into a firm plug. It is a big reason wax troubles become more common from our fifties onwards.
Anything you wear in your ears
If you wear hearing aids, use foam plugs for sleep or work, or have earphones in for hours at a time, you are physically blocking the natural path wax takes to leave the ear. It gets pushed back and pressed together rather than working its way out. That is not a reason to stop using them, it just means your ears may need checking a little more often. If you wear hearing aids, keeping the canal clear also helps them work properly and last longer.
Cotton buds and over-cleaning
This is the one worth pausing on. Cotton buds, hair grips, rolled-up tissue and the corner of a towel all tend to push wax deeper rather than remove it. Ironically, the more someone cleans inside the ear, the more blocked they often become, and the harder the wax is to shift. The old advice still holds: never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear.
Your skin
Skin conditions such as eczema or dermatitis in and around the ear can change both how much wax is made and how it behaves. If your ears are often itchy, flaky or sore as well as waxy, do mention it when you come in, as the skin itself may need a little looking after.
When is earwax a problem, and when can you leave it alone?
Here is the reassuring part. If your ears feel fine and you are hearing normally, you almost certainly do not need to do anything at all. Wax you cannot feel is simply doing its job. It becomes worth acting on when it builds up enough to cause symptoms, such as:
- muffled or reduced hearing
- a feeling of fullness or blockage
- ringing or buzzing, which can settle once the wax is cleared
- earache or a persistently itchy ear
- whistling or feedback from a hearing aid that used to sit fine
If you are noticing any of those, it is worth having a proper look rather than waiting and hoping. If you are not sure whether wax is behind a change in your hearing, our free online hearing check is a quick way to get a sense of things before you decide to book anything.
What can we do to help?
When wax genuinely needs removing, we use microsuction. Rather than flushing the ear with water, we gently draw the wax out with a fine suction device while looking directly into the ear the whole time under magnification. Because we can see exactly what we are doing, it is a controlled, tidy and comfortable way to clear a blockage. It suits most people, including those with a history of ear surgery or a perforated eardrum, where water-based methods are best avoided. You can read how it works on our wax removal page, and there are some simple habits for keeping ears in good shape between visits on our ear health page.
If your ears feel full, muffled or blocked, we can take a proper look and clear things safely and gently. Book a microsuction wax-removal appointment or call us on 01709 437250, and we will get you sorted.
