Most people clean their ears on a daily basis. Some do it after they wake up and the others during the shower. Some use cotton swabs or Q-tips, while others use water. Regardless of the method, we feel like it’s safe to say that all of us want ours to be clean. We don’t want to risk any infections or other problems, so we keep them clean.
However, most of us know that cotton swabs aren’t the ideal tool to clean our ears with. Research has shown that Q-tips don’t really that great of a job. More importantly, if used improperly, they can cause some major issues like infections or even perforated eardrum. What happens when you use a cotton swab is you push the earwax deeper into the canal instead of cleaning it out. Now, earwax isn’t bad. On the contrary, it serves many purposes and many even claim that we shouldn’t clean it unless there’s an excess of it. Some doctors even advise only to clean the outer portion of the ear without entering the canal.
However, most of us can’t stand the excess of the earwax and we have to clean it one way or another. Now, if you shouldn’t use Q-tips – what else is there? Glad you asked…
Another keen method to remove earwax and other impurities from the canal is by using ear candles. It’s a traditional method used for hundreds of years, nowadays commonly found in holistic centres and spas. If you’ve never heard of it before, don’t worry. We’re going to go over every aspect of ear candling – how it’s done, is it safe, why you should do it and so much more. On that note, let’s get started.
What Are Ear Candles?
Let’s do a quick revision – ear candling is a process of removing cerumen, bacteria or other impurities from an ear. How do you do that? By using ear candles.
Ear candles are long, thin, hollow cones, made out of slow-burning fabric, covered in, you guessed it, wax. Paraffin is the one usually used, but you can also use beeswax or soy wax. In general, these candles are quite long and thin – about 30cm long. That’s about a foot for our US readers.
As we’ve already said, this ‘candle’ is shaped like a cone – it has a pointy end, and a wide one. The general belief is that by placing the pointy end inside your ear and lighting the wider one on fire, a suction is created and that suction virtually sucks out the impurities from your ear. Whether that’s true – no one can say for sure. Even though there is no scientific data to back these claims up, people are still claiming this treatment helped them. So, it’s pretty much up to you to believe in it or not – we certainly do.
How Do They Work?
As we’ve previously said, one end of the cone (the pointy one) is inserted in your ear, while the other part is lit. Naturally, as this thing is covered in wax which is about to become lit, you can’t perform this procedure on yourself by yourself. It’s just not safe. We’ve asked healthyenergyamazinglife.com and they also agree that ear candles should be handled by someone with previous experience and you’re about to learn why that is.
To start the procedure, you’ll have to lie down with one side of your head facing up – or just lie sideways. The thing is, the cone must be upright for the procedure to be successful. After you’ve done that, an experienced practitioner will gently insert the pointy end of the candle in the ear and adjust it accordingly. Once the candle is placed in a way that it has created a seal – you can continue.
Additionally, the person performing the treatment will make sure your ear, face and neck are protected. A piece of aluminium foil or paper plate will be placed around the candle so that the dripping wax wouldn’t burn you. Also, a towel is placed over your head and neck for additional protection. Once all of that is done, a candle is lit and left to burn for about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size. During that time, the practitioner will be trimming the burned portion of the candle to make sure none of it ends up in your ear. Once 2/3 of the candle have been burnt, the flame is slowly and carefully extinguished, to prevent any ash or other burning material from ending up in your ear. The practitioner will then remove the candle from the ear and more often than not, show you the contents lodged in the pointy end.
What Are The Benefits Of Ear Candling?
People claim that this procedure has a lot of different benefits and it isn’t only for removing the extra cerumen. To be fair, all of these are claims and none of it has been proven, but people claim there are true. So, let’s check some of them out.
- Alleviates Earaches – By removing debris or other impurities, this method is said to have helped many get rid of the ear pain.
- Helps Fight Ear Infections – Once again it’s the same premise. Clean equals healthy.
- Alleviates Tinnitus – Many claim this procedure has helped them get rid of the ringing sensation.
- Improves Hearing – By removing excess cerumen or other impurities.
- Helps With Sinus Infections – Heat from the candle burning has been known to help alleviate the congestion.
- Helps Alleviate Flu Symptoms – Many claim they felt lighter and non-clogged after the therapy session.
- Helps With Sore Throat – An ear infection could be an underlying cause for a sore throat.
- Relieves Stress – The experience is quite soothing and relaxing.
- Alleviates Headaches – An infection could cause a headache.
And many more…
As you can see, there are a handful of benefits to this procedure or at least people claim that there are. These candles have been around for a long time and people seem to enjoy them very much. We tried to give you as much information about it as we could and we can only hope we’ve done enough.
