So what is ear wax?  The ear canal has special cells which produces cerumen (commonly known as ear wax).  The amount of cerumen produced varies from person to person and in some cases can build up at a much faster rate.  Excess ear wax can lead to temporary hearing loss and in some cases pain, but this can easily be rectified by a visit to your GP.

Michael Wareing, the head of the ENT department at St Bartholomew's in London, says that between 25 and 50 per cent of cases he sees are "traumatic perforations" caused by a direct injury such as a cotton bud being used to clean the ears.

CAUTION! It is important to understand that nothing should be inserted into your ears to remove dirt or debris – this is a dangerous practice which could lead to perforations of the ear drum and even be a cause of hearing loss.

The correct method to clean your ears…
The outer ear (the part visible to you and I) should be cleaned and can be done so easily using a wet facecloth.   However, the ear canal (what we cannot see) in most cases does not need to be cleaned.  In most cases, during hair washes and showers enough water enters into the ear canal to loosen the wax that has accumulated.  Additionally, the skin inside your ear canal naturally grows in an outward, spiral pattern and as it sloughs off, ear wax will go with it.  Ear wax also loosens and will fall out whilst we are asleep.

For those that suffer from large build ups of ear wax, this can easily be treated by a trip to your GP.  Doctors can easily remove earwax by injecting a solution into the ear (fear not, this is not an injection in the normal sense of the word, the skin is not broken and it is just used as a quick and clean method of getting the solution in the ear).  This method is virtually painless and is very effective in removing excess wax.

So next time you go for the cotton bud, step back and think – never insert anything (other than a correctly fitted hearing aid) into your ear canal.  Our amazing bodies will help us in the fight to keep our ears nice and clean.