I have been really interested in ear candling since I first heard about it while I was in college, but have never had it done because I also hear it is not good for you. People say it is necessary to have ear wax. I recently looked into ear candling and it seems like the issue is not that it is not good for you, it is that it is totally ineffective.
Apparently anything that comes out of the ear is residue from the candle. One site I was reading said:
Since wax is sticky, the negative pressure needed to pull wax from the canal would have to be so powerful that it would rupture the eardrum in the process. However, candling produces no vacuum. Researchers who measured the pressure during candling of ear models found that no negative pressure was created. The same investigators candled eight ears and found that no ear wax was removed and candle wax was actually deposited in some of them!
I guess I will stick to Q-Tips.
1 response so far ↓
misplacedpom // April 14, 2009 at 3:37 pm |
My ear Doctor, of which I saw MANY when I was a child, told me to never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear. Now try putting your elbow in your ear. Be careful with those q-tips!