New career?

I have a strong stomach and am usually not too disturbed by these things ... but my my ... that was ... urhhh .... The ringing in my left ear (developed recently as of a month ago) literally feels worse after watching that.

It reminds me of what's inside the ear candles when I'm done. I guess it doesn't just remind me. I guess it IS whats in the ear candle...

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I thought the doctor or whatever was getting out and awful lot, and was impressed.

Then, I saw that mother lode at the end, and my jaw literally dropped.



I'm skeptical about those ear candle things.

From things I've seen, there's no way that much could come out of your ear, so often.
Also, I'd set my head on fire for sure.

oh god im going to lose my dinner

It was pretty nasty.

Was this a routine/preventative procedure or was something else (an ear infection or something along those lines) the motivating factor in getting it done?

I'll bet they couldn't HEAR! My Dad thought he was losing his hearing. Come to find out he had just packed wax down into his ear canal by using Q-tips. I imagine it was something like that if not worse. Yuck.

The wax at the end of an ear candeling session is from the candle, not your ear. Ear candles are dangerous, they can pop and ear drum.

yeah, pretty cool, huh?

Not true. I was very skeptical about the ear candle, even after I had it done the first time. I've since burned one without it being in my ear to see if what collects is a product of the candle or pulled from my ear.

What is left in the candle is certainly not as much as what is in this guy's ear (the video), but still a similar composition. You can see pollen, yeast, dust, and of course wax.

I think this may have been infected, I noticed some puss like fluid.

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Very true!

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/med/ear-oreille-eng.php

There is no scientific proof to support claims that ear candling provides medical benefits. In fact, Health Canada conducted laboratory tests that showed that ear candling produces no significant heating or suction in the ear canal.

However, there is plenty of proof that ear candling is dangerous. Ear candling poses a risk of fire. It can also cause serious burns and other injuries if hot wax drips into your ear, or onto your skin or hair. There have been reports of several cases of ear injury in Canada.

In 1996, a report published in the medical journal Laryngoscope concluded that "ear candles have no benefit in the management of cerumen (ear wax) and may result in serious injury." Health Canada agrees.

The authors of the report, all of whom were medical doctors, conducted a survey of 122 ear specialists. They found 21 cases of serious injury caused by ear candling. In six of these cases, patients temporarily lost their hearing. Other problems reported among the group included:

Thirteen cases of burns
Seven cases where the wax from the candle had blocked the ear canal
One case of a punctured ear drum

hmm. I guess this leaves me confused. I mean, I did do a control experiment to see if what collected was a product of the candle. Using the candles is not something I have done in years, so if it is hazardous, it's not like I have to rewrite my whole lifestyle. LOL.

Thanks for the link
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I was chatting with an old fashioned country GP (who was very much not "old fashioned" in the quality of his continuing education) in the emergency room once many moons ago, and he gently chuckled about a kid we had just had who had a small section of broken crayon in his ear. He then told us about the incredible things which kids put in their ears, and how long it takes people to notice, saying the topper was a kid who had an entire .22 long rifle cartridge in his ear, and who was not brought in until his ear was so swollen and red the parents could no longer ignore it--he figured the cartridge had been jammed in the kids ear for about two months by then.

Ear candles are dangerous if not done with the help of someone with a steady hand and good judgement. Cannot be done without good help. I once had severe wax that made me deaf. It took several candles to get the wax out. But it worked very well and my hearing became normal again. My wife assisted each time and I would not have attempted it without her.

Heartily seconding Ceili on this one.

Also, I've seen that exact kind of film of sozlet's ear, it's magnified so looks way bigger than it actually is. (Not just the obvious magnification in that the image is bigger than an ear, but that the inside is magnified while the outside appears "normal," which throws off the scale.) That's a lot of wax but it's not a huge amount of wax.

There are a lot of reasons it would be removed -- some people just get build-up and need it removed regularly (especially if they wear hearing aids), sometimes it affects hearing, sometimes the ENT needs to look at the eardrum and can't see it 'cause of wax so needs to remove the wax first, etc.

On a related note, only trained ENTs can do this. My daughter's pediatrician wouldn't try it, for example. It's a really delicate operation and the eardrum can be easily damaged.