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What’s the Point of Earwax?


Claire.

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What’s the Point of Earwax?

Earwax is often regarded as dirty, or gross—something to be removed with a Q-tip. But that’s just wrong. Over the decades, countless doctors—and friends and family in the know—have reminded us why it is a bad idea to clean out our ear canals. Still, many of us aren’t hearing the message.

Earwax—also known as cerumen—is made up of secretions from both sebaceous glands and sweat glands mixed with sloughed-off cells from the outer part of the ear canal. Sometimes it gathers hair or dirt. Cerumen is the body’s way of keeping the ear canal clean and lubricated. Its acidic nature also seems to give it some antibacterial properties, says Seth Schwartz, an otolaryngologist and director for the Listen for Life Center at the Virginia Mason Health System in Seattle.

Read more: Smithsonian

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I once went to grade-school with a kid whose earwax build-up was so horrific that you could just see the gobs of it at the entrance to his ears.

I suspect the school nurse encouraged his parents to have it cleaned because one day he came to school and his ear canals were cleared of the junk.

Earwax can be useful but also can be a impediment if it clogs up the ear so you can't even hear right. When I was little I had my ears cleaned by a doctor because of excess earwax which was part of the reason I was getting earaches.

 

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