If you\u2019re like many people, after your shower you reach for a Q-tip to dry your ears. But did you know that simple practice could cause the wax in your ears to get impacted? It can. And that\u2019s why Dr. Ted Benke of Benke Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic says beware of the Q-tip.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomewhere along the way, ear wax has gotten a bad rap,\u201d Benke said. \u201cEar wax in and of itself is not a bad thing. It is actually normal and healthy\u2014it\u2019s a germ fighter and protects your ear canal.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is that people who use Q-tips get rid of all that wax and that<\/em> creates a dry flaky ear and often times, the ear will begin to weep from over use of the Q-tip. That, in turn, makes it more susceptible to ear canal infections.\u201d<\/p>\n He said as an otolaryngologist or ENT physician, he regularly removes ear wax from patients who have had it impacted, predominately from overuse of Q-tips.<\/p>\n \u201cEar wax is not formed in the deep part of the ear canal near the eardrum, but in the outer third of the ear canal,\u201d he said. \u201cSo when a patient has wax blockage against the eardrum, it\u2019s often because he has been probing the ear with things like Q-tips, bobby pins, or twisted napkin corners, and these things only push the wax in deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n If that occurs, he said, it\u2019s called cerumen impaction, and it may cause an earache or a feeling of fullness in the ear or a sensation that the ear is plugged. He said a patient may experience tinnitus, ringing or noise in the ear or itching, odor or discharge.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, a patient comes in complaining that he can\u2019t hear as well as he used to,\u201d he said. \u201cMany times we find that the reason is as simple as ear wax.\u201d<\/p>\n Benke said some techniques include using a syringe to irrigate the ear, but he said the best course of treatment is to remove it with direct visualization under microscopic guidance and a gentle suction, as seen in the picture above.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a patient has really hard ear wax that\u2019s severely impacted, I\u2019ll give them carbamide, which is an oily type of peroxide to use at night, and peroxide to use in the morning to clean the ear. Then they\u2019ll come back in a week and we\u2019ll take it out using microscopic guidance. It\u2019s virtually painless.\u201d<\/p>\n Benke said he uses the technique with patients of all ages.<\/p>\n \u201cLast week I removed ear wax from a 99-year old woman. She had complained to her primary care physician about having itchy ears and he referred her to me. The culprit\u2014ear wax.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to ear wax, Benke has also removed other things from patients\u2019 ears.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve removed all kinds of foreign objects from the ear canal. I\u2019ve taken out ticks, erasers, rocks, seeds, beans, little toys, and even silly putty one time. With infants and children, we let them sit in their mom\u2019s lap and use a headlight under direct vision and scoop it out with a curette scooper.\u201d<\/p>\n Benke said using other techniques, like the syringe, may simply flush part<\/em> of an object out, leaving other parts inside the ear.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why microscopic guidance with direct visualization is the most effective treatment,\u201d he said. With it, we not only remove ear wax, but all kinds of stuff that people put in their ears.\u201d<\/p>\n Benke ENT also offers audiology services, diagnostic hearing tests, a complete line of hearing aids and evaluation and treatment for vertigo.<\/p>\n For more information or an appointment, contact his office at 817-641-3750.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019re like many people, after your shower you reach for a Q-tip to dry your ears. But did you know that simple practice could cause the wax in your ears to get impacted? It can. And that\u2019s why Dr. Ted Benke of Benke Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic says beware of the Q-tip. \u201cSomewhere…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Ear wax in and of itself is not a bad thing. It is actually normal and healthy\u2014it\u2019s a germ fighter and protects your ear canal.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hearing-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbenke.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}