Time to Read: 3 minutes
You might have seen them alongside the WaxSol drops on the pharmacy shelves, but have you ever wondered whether those ear candle things work effectively to deal with ear wax.
It sort of makes sense - wax melts and evaporates on a candle, so why wouldn’t a similar looking device work for dealing with ear wax? It even has a similar sounding name - candling.
So how is it supposed to work?
Candling is certainly not a one-man operation for a start. You are supposed to lay on your side and place the light candle in your ear - but beware of dripping wax. You have to let it burn for 15 minutes before doing the same to the other ear.
If that doesn’t sound dodgy enough, the list of all the health claims should be enough to make you suspicious. A cure for tinnitus, a cure for the common cold, a brain ‘strengthening’ technique…
None of the claims have been found to have a shred of scientific backing.
And in worse news, using these candles in correctly can actually permanently damage your ears. Remember mum used to say 'put nothing in your ear smaller than your elbow?'. She was absolutely correct.
At the bare minimum you risk burns, not to mention pushing ear wax further into the ear canal. This adds more wax to your ears to compound the problem.
And finally you will be wasting money that might have been better spent on solutions which actually do work.
So, what does work? Fortunately there are safe ways to deal with excessive ear wax.
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