Earwax that blocks our ears and prevents us from hearing from time to time necessitates an examination by an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) physician. Although this problem is known as earwax, it is not correct to call it “dirt”, it is called “buşon” in the French literature, which means “plug” in Turkish. Naturally, there is an oily secretion in the external ear canal to protect the skin from microbes in the external environment. In a healthy individual, this secretion is expelled from the external ear canal by the movements of the skin cells. However, the inability of the ear skin to be lazily and insufficient to expel the secretion, the increase in the amount of the epidemic or the excessive density of the epidemic cause the formation of the plug.
Epithelial residues spilled from the skin, dust and similar foreign substances reaching here from the external environment, and dead or live microbes form this plug. Since the plug has a cellulosic structure, after any water enters the external ear canal, it absorbs water and swells like a sponge. This becomes more evident especially after the pool, sea or bath. In this case, the best thing to do would be to see an ENT doctor immediately. The gag is usually silent, causes ear congestion, buzzing, pressure sensation, tinnitus, and temporary loss of hearing, rarely causing pain.
Some precautions can help to avoid earwax buildup. First of all, we should allow water to enter our ears during bathing. Pool and sea water, which we are sure of its cleanliness, can enter our ears. In this way, the debris, which is responsible for forming the plug on the epithelium, gets wet and it becomes easier to be thrown out. Drying the external ear canal after bathing should be done with a clean piece of cotton cloth or a paper towel that we put on the tip of the finger.
We do not recommend drying with ear cleaning sticks. There are several reasons for this; With these sticks, we can push the debris that has not yet become a plug in the external ear canal to the front of the eardrum and make the plug more solid. Another drawback is that as a result of frequent cleaning of the external ear canal with ear cleaning sticks, we dry the environment, which should normally be a little oily, and make it ready for the invasion of microbes. In this case, the risk of external ear infection or fungal infection, called external otitis, may occur. Both are extremely intolerable and time-consuming ailments to treat.
