Ear candles: health regulators warn, but the business keeps growing

The ear candles that health authorities advise against

Does sticking a waxed fabric cone in your ear and lighting it actually do anything? The short answer is no. The long answer includes burns to the face, melted wax inside the ear canal, and perforated eardrums. Ear candles, sold as natural suction-based cleaning, are not recommended by health authorities, and the American Academy of Otolaryngology expressly warns of their lack of effectiveness and their risks. Even so, the product keeps selling and the practice keeps being done at home, often as a family tradition.

What health authorities say about ear candles

The mechanism attributed to them — warm air rising and drawing wax out from inside — does not hold up. Inserting and lighting the cone can cause burns to the ear or face, blockage of the canal from the candle's own melted wax, and eardrum perforation with possible hearing damage. The American Academy of Otolaryngology, cited via ENT Health, stresses that there is no evidence they remove wax. And it should be said plainly: that is not a candle, it is a paper tube that burns without dropping ash and that, in theory, never actually touches the ear.

The health guidance is uncomfortable for anyone looking for quick fixes. Earwax comes out on its own and serves a protective function: it is not dirt. It is enough to clean the outer part and not insert cotton swabs. If there is a blockage, the sensible route is to ask a pharmacist about softening drops.

Syringe, hydrogen peroxide and olive oil: the home medicine cabinet

Against the cone, the most widespread alternative is home irrigation. The protocol circulating everywhere: soften first with olive oil applied with cotton for one or two days, or with drops like Otocerum or Taponoto, then use a 20 ml syringe with lukewarm water at body temperature, without excessive pressure and aimed at the walls of the canal, never straight at the eardrum. Two or three flushes per direction and, if nothing comes out, it is time to soften again and wait another day.

There are more kitchen-table remedies: 3% pharmacy hydrogen peroxide, purified seawater spray like Audispray, a tablespoon of salt in warm water no hotter than 40 degrees. And a warning that gets repeated: the grandfather who ended up half deaf from cleaning his ears so much. The tickling when the blockage dissolves, say the veterans, gives you shivers.

The business behind it: expensive drops, waiting lists and 900-euro hearing aids

The background is economic. Ear drops are expensive and cumbersome, and having a blockage removed in Spain's public health system depends on an appointment that can take months, with your ear blocked in the meantime. That is why many people end up buying syringes and oil and learning the procedure themselves. There is also the circulating suspicion that some of the hugely popular social media content about ear cleaning is sponsored by hearing aid sellers, with mid-range devices quoted at around 900 euros.

A comparative curiosity comes from India, where there are street ear cleaners armed with needles and a steady hand. There, hearing problems are linked to constant ambient noise, not to wax.

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The wax, meanwhile, keeps coming out on its own. For free.