earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

general questions, comments and ideas about recording, audio, music, etc.
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logancircle
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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by logancircle » Thu Jun 05, 2003 11:58 am

Is it really smart to do the ear cleaning thing? Doesn't the wax serve some purpose? Well I guess a lot of bodily processes don't benefit you. Like zits and stuff like that--they just happen. Is anyone hear a doctor or know someone who could tell us if it's dangerous?

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DeafinONEear
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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by DeafinONEear » Thu Jun 05, 2003 1:32 pm

logancircle wrote:Is anyone hear a doctor or know someone who could tell us if it's dangerous?
Well, I might be able to hear one, but since we're all clogged up here, I can't hear a thing! ;)

Michael,
are they the premolded ones? I use those and I almost always get some residule on the canal of the plug when I take it out.

I just would like to know how all the q-tip freaks (as in "freakin-out-about-others-using-q-tips", or FOAOUQ for short) can justify using plugs....

not to start shit and all, but... well... to start shit.

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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by cwileyriser » Thu Jun 05, 2003 1:36 pm

trodden wrote: no way. how come when the first time i did it, i didn't have the candle in far enough and there was no "gross shit" in the end???
There's an entire website from the Creighton U. School of Medicine on ear candling. http://altmed.creighton.edu/ear/

Basically, they say it's bogus, but they do present the pro and con evidence. They tried an experiment and the remnants of the control candle (burned without inserting in someone's ear) and the experiment candle (used as instructed in the subject's ear) weighed the same - so the candle extracted nothing.

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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by cwileyriser » Thu Jun 05, 2003 1:49 pm


Rec Head
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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by Rec Head » Thu Jun 05, 2003 8:53 pm

I had a patient with a roach in his ear. All I could see was the roach's ass and 2 legs ---- moving. Fucking gross. I wonder if the roach ate the earwax.

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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by psychicoctopus » Fri Jun 06, 2003 2:29 am

Rec Head wrote:I had a patient with a roach in his ear. All I could see was the roach's ass and 2 legs ---- moving. Fucking gross. I wonder if the roach ate the earwax.
Whoa! Can you imagine the sound of a live roach stuck in your ear?

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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by Russian Recording » Fri Jun 06, 2003 7:30 am

are they the premolded ones? I use those and I almost always get some residule on the canal of the plug when I take it out.

I just would like to know how all the q-tip freaks (as in "freakin-out-about-others-using-q-tips", or FOAOUQ for short) can justify using plugs....

not to start shit and all, but... well... to start shit.
I use ear plugs. The premolded ones made by etymotic research, and yes, I do get 'residue' on the canal of the plug... the residue is actually just a real thin layer of wax (probably mixed with a little ear-sweat). But a very thin layer of ear wax doesn't affect your hearing, as let's say a hard chunk of wax wedged behind the second bend of your ear canal. In fact, a thin layer of wax in your inner ear is a good thing, it's what your body does to keep your ear from drying out and getting all sorts of crap in it by naturally draing itself. However, if after you've taken your plugs out, you freak out over the film in your canal, and you stick a q-tip into your year in an attempt to clear away the film, you are in effect pushing that wax that's trying to naturally drain itself back into your ear canal. Eventually this leads to build up and hardening, which will dramatically affect your hearing.If it's real bad, it can actually adhere to your inner ear, and cause a huge amount of pain when removed, similar to picking off a fresh scab :rofl: Im not speaking out of my ass here, its happened to me. And I was once a Q-tip user myself, and after witnessing the results, visiting the audiologist and getting a consultation, I would much rather not even take the risk of damaging the most important tool in my recording arsenal... and its the only one that's free![/quote]

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drew w
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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by drew w » Fri Jun 06, 2003 7:43 am

I too tried the majic ear candles along with the 3 other fellow musicians a few years back. I did not believe there was any way I had such a big ass glob of wax in my ear and my extremely acute powers of observation revealed the candles are a nice light shade of ear wax yellow before you fire them up. Some of the other folks fell for it until we tried one on the kitchen table which apparently had a lot of earwax in it's ear canal too...the candle produced a nice nasty glob of earwax from the table top just like the one that "came out of" my ear. The placebo effect strikes again! Don't use 'em.
Drew

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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by Flight Feathers » Fri Jun 06, 2003 8:48 am

let me share a q-tip horror story. i was once q-tip'ing my ear and for some reason felt the need to adjust my batroom mirror, so i reached up to swivel it, leaving the q-tip dangling from ear. while my arm was traveling upwards, i didnt take into account the extra 2 inchs of q-tip sticking out of my ear, and accidentally jammed the thing really hard into my ear. oh the pain! i am cringing while i type this. i was seriously afraid that i had damaged my ear forever. it hurt like fuck. but i am ok now, but i still get pain in my ear sometimes (this only happened a month ago).

wow, what a great story. :?
fingers good, q-tips bad!

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drew w
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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by drew w » Fri Jun 06, 2003 9:02 am

the other problem with q-tips...
aside from all the jammed in your ear probems, Q-tips can and do leave debris in the ear canal. If you look closely at the swab before or especially after use you will often see tiny trailing fibers of cotton on the tip. The rest of those fibers are stuck in your ear along with the wax you just tamped in there.
Has anyone tried the International Aquatic Trade earplugs reviewed in the last issue of tape op? They might eliminate the wax tamping effect from using other types of earplugs like the custom molded expensive plugs I have (but haven't found to be that comfortable). According to the review, the plugs fit outside the ear canal instead of deep in waxland. I'm going to check 'em out.
Drew

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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by inthered » Fri Jun 06, 2003 12:04 pm

My girlfriend has taught me all sorts of useful hygeine tricks that I apparently was too thick / crude to have picked up elsewhere in life. Among them is dipping a bobby pin in scalding hot water and then scraping off the earwax from the canal with it (using the bent part rather than the ends) and wiping it somewhere, taking about 4-5 scrapes every couple days. It is moving some wax around but not actually pushing anything down inside, so it's better than qtips but maybe no better than something involving fluids and frothing. However, I only go as far as I had with q-tips, so maybe I'm not getting far enough to do much good.

Another friend of mine said that he got a nasal douche from a ear/nose/throat guy and that it was awesome; I want one soon, and anyone going for a professional ear flush should consider a two-fer. I'm not suggesting any benefits to hearing, of course, but I think that in general washing out one's sinuses might be a good way of reducing susceptibility to head infections, which are murder when you're trying to work.

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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by drummerboy1533 » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:55 am

I was having ear molds made at the audiologist for IEM's and he yanked a hard ball of wax out of one ear(the size of a pea!) but had to send me to another with a special tool for the opposite ear.That softball sized bitch was 'fused" onto the hair folicles!.After he yanked it ,I no longer had to boost the highs on car stereo-DUH! LET THE PRO's DEWAX US!...

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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by djdrake13 » Mon Feb 14, 2005 8:09 am

question for the people who have tried over the counter cleansers at the pharmacy.. what did you find to be the best choice?? Was it price or effectiveness??
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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by craigloom » Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:49 am

I just wanna chime in and say that I tried the Debrox thing last week. I thought my ears could use a little cleaning. Simple maintenance. Anyway, eversince I did my one ear, I've felt like it's totally clogged with oil. That shit is not coming out! I'm actually seeing a doc this afternoon about this. I just noticed this thread. Man, how appropriate.

Seriously, I just want to caution the Debrox route. I may have accidently put too much, but still, I'd avoid it.

Oh, the other day I tried the ear candle thing to see if it would unglog it. No luck.
So, anyway, yeah, see a doctor.

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Re: earwax candles and other witchcraft!!!

Post by dale116dot7 » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:01 pm

I did the same test on the ear candles. Same thing - same residue inside the candle either way. Sometimes none, sometimes a lot - same as when done on people. My sample size was probably five or six candles. The vacuum created by the candle while it burns is only a couple of inches of water. You also can't heat up the wax in your ear to much above 50 degrees C without burning the inside of your ear. To draw out something as viscous as even warm ear wax would take some serious pressure differential or flow... the flow required by the doctor's ear syringe, and if you've had it done you know it's pretty loud in there... and that's with water. Air would be even less effective at moving that stuff. Finally, if a bit of hot candle falls into your ear canal, it may burn through your eardrum, and a ruptured eardrum is painful and your hearing will be permanently affected.

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