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Ear Care


Narcissism

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On another forum I used to go to, I asked what people thought about ear care, because as musicians, ears are pretty important. I use a q-tip after I get out of the shower, as i can place it at the edge of the ear canal, tip my head and work the q-tip around the outside till it picks up any deluted wax and my ears feel dry.

Others started mentioning ear candeling, water guns, little forks and all kinds of weird **** lol.

What do you guys think?

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for the outer part i use q tips (well my ear plugs at work seem to keep that part clean these days) for a deap clean i use peroxide, i lay on my side pour my ear full and wait until it stops bubbing drain and do it agian. (btw that works great on ear infections too)

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Really...isn't the saying, don't put anything smaller than your elbow in your ears?

Most things are harmful, ear wax is created for a reason...ear candling can be dangerous and scientifically show to be bogus (think about it, no way can it produce a vacuum and on testing all that wax came from the candle itself...years back I gave it a go to help a friend who was learning this stuff, but I never felt so silly...someone has actually died from doing it themselves!!!)

So...I will confess to the occasional q-tip on the outside of the ear canal to dry them, especially if I've been swimming in the ocean or got water in my ears some how...it you take out the wax, the body will just try and compensate by creating more...then you create a cycle of the stuff...

If you are having ear irritations, see a doctor, if it's a bit of ringing in the ears, that will not help, leave it alone and turn down the volume.

When working in industrial jobs, we wore foam ear plugs...a pain at first, but then I realized you could ignore the supervisors claiming you couldn't hear them, and a lot quieter...

When playing in a band, I didn't use ear plugs, the main problem was the high end coming off the edges of the cymbals...that's why drummers suffer, it's aimed right at them...so just avoid that for the high end.

You don't really "need" to play that loud generally, if you are louder than a drummer acoustically, that's really a bit too loud!

One of the big problems these days are things like iPods, so not too loud and over exposed with things right in your ears.

Your ear also has a natural threshold and if you expose yourself to a lot of loud noise, not only will it hurt in time, possibly give you headaches and other symptoms...they will try and moderate things so later you can't hear so well till they adjust...and when you are making noise, you won't hear it as loud as it is...better not to reach that threshold in the first place so it always sounds "loud" but within reason...

But...I believe it is something, particularly in america it seems, that people get a bit weird about and feel that the wax in there is somehow unnatural and should be removed...it's there to ensure that your ears are safe, so best to leave it alone generally.

If you must, there are ultrasonic ear cleaning devices I've heard, but really, it's all a bit of a scam...gross you out on the idea, convince you that it's wrong, get you to clean it, make it become a problem...then you keep buying crap to clean it because your ears are making more to replace what you have just taken out!

I use a q-tip after I get out of the shower, as i can place it at the edge of the ear canal, tip my head and work the q-tip around the outside till it picks up any deluted wax and my ears feel dry.

That's all you need...the outside of the ear after a hot shower...and as far as I'm prepared to go!

What a weird question!

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I have a friend who has been a top level sound engineer for about 20 years and he goes to the ENT doctor every month or two for a professional cleaning. When asked why, he said it's because while wax is natural, the amount your body produces may or may not allow for the most critical of listening. Much like mucus, it's a necessary natural substance, but too much of it doesn't mean it's all needed.

On a side note, I have found that musician's ear plugs work quite well for band situations and I won't play super loud without them any more. Then again, with a full time job and two small kids, I haven't played super loud in a long time anyway.

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Years ago, I would regularly use a q-tip soaked in rubbing alcohol. Then a doctor looked in my ears and said they're too clean. But then my ears started itching again quite a bit. Then another doc said I was leaving soap in my ears. Now, I rinse them out with water from the shower head, and at the end of a shower I do this swimmer's trick of using the palm of my hand like a suction pump over my ears. I guess it works pretty good. Still use a q-tip once or twice a month.

I'm more careful with the q-tips these days, after pushing many of them too far in and then losing my grip and away they go, all piled up inside my head.

My Mom's cousin, WWII Marine veteran, said they'd put listerine in their ears.

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I had my ears cleaned back in the mid-80's. Doctor told me to drop vegetable oil in my ears once a day for a week before coming back. Then he had me hold a kidney dish under my ear while he went to work. The tool was a large syringe loaded with warm water. It was a double walled affair with the outer layer pushing warm water in and the inner sucking out the core. The oil was to loosen up things between the dirt and the skin. What emerged surprised the hell out of me! All the dirt, dust and pollen (and who knows what else) that had accumulated from places I lived throughout my lifetime. Kinda weird when you think about it, just like looking at sedimentary layers in chronological order. The things floating in the dish looked like little turds and they were about 1" long each. I have to admit that the procedure felt great, warm water swishing around inside your head. :D Afterwards my hearing was greatly improved, all background noises that I normally would have missed were present.

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  • 3 weeks later...

i had the hopi ear candle thing done when my mum was training to do it. It removes absolutely no wax so the common practice of pulling candle apart to look at the gunk its removed is definately bogus.. But it does massage the ear drum in quite a pleasant way and coupled with a facial/cheek/neck massage apparently can loosen wax enough that so it comes out easier

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