4.5. Cleaning of the Outer Ear

Ears are very delicate organs which can be damaged if exposed to noise stronger than 80 db for a substantial amount of time. The eardrum, accepting the mechanical oscillation of sound waves, is the most susceptible to injury, although it is well protected by the outer ear canal. A special hazard comes in the form of mechanical parts, e.g. dust, arriving with sound, getting glued to the walls of the ear canal and constituting a potential risk of narrowing or blocking, and consequently reduced hearing.

In the outer ear canal the body excretes earwax, which accumulates tiny mechanical particles and removes them from the ear canal, however, the earwax, combined with tiny particles from the air, may harden up and create a blockade in the canal.

The blockade is usually dense, hard and constitutes a narrowing, an obstacle or even complete blocking of the outer ear canal: thus, it prevents the drum from normally receiving the sound and reduces the hearing; sometimes, the hearing is so bad that the patient is practically deaf.

The classical medicine cleans the outer ear canal by releasing warm water under pressure into the passage: the blockade becomes softer, and then the dirt is blown out from the outer ear canal. This method is not always successful; often, the outer ear canal gets blocked again after a while. A blocked ear can be the most successfully cleaned by negative pressure, prepared by means of a textile tube and wax, burning out at the entrance of the outer ear canal.

Preparation of the tube:

Take a piece of unwashed thin cotton textile of around 20 x 20 cm and dip it into melted pure bee wax. It is important that the wax was formed in the natural way, without supplementary feeding of the bees. Role the cloth soaked in wax into a cone, so that the lower part of the cone has an opening of around 5 mm and the upper end has an opening of around 6 cm. The length of the tube should be between 15 and 20 cm. Adjust the lower opening of the tube to the patient’s entrance to the outer ear canal, so that it closes the entrance, by cutting the lower end of the cone with scissors as necessary. The tube, which has now become a candle, is soft, adjusted to the entrance to the ear and ready for use.

Cleaning procedure:

Prepare a container with water, two towels, scissors, matches and a piece of paper or cardboard of A5 format. Make a whole of around 3 cm in the middle of the paper and insert the narrower part of the tube in it. The patient puts the head - the side opposite to the ear we intend to clean - on one of the folded towels on the table.

Bend the paper around the tube and push the tube softly into the entrance to the ear. Take care not to block the opening of the candle by pushing too hard. Spread out the paper and cover the ear and part of the head, so that the wax does not burn the patient. Light up the wider part of the candle and let it burn. The burning temperature transforms the earwax into dust, and negative pressure between the cool and the warm parts of the candle brings the dust into the tube.

Interrupt the therapy two or three times, cut off the burned part of the candle and put it in the water. Clean the lower part of the candle that was in the ear by means of rolled up wire. It frequently happens that we must unfold the candle and scrape the material collected at the end of the cone, blocked when the earwax or dust was being removed from the ear. If necessary, use two to three candles for an ear; the extract from the ear can usually fill up a match box.

When the candle is burning, the patient hears crackling and then a bang, meaning that the cleaning is over. It may happen that there is no such final bang, although two or even three candles have been used, however, the therapy should be stopped and continued in two days. The patient feels relief in the ear and hears better, although the therapy is not over.

Take good care that no accident happens during therapy; the container with water is used for throwing in the extracts and putting out the candles. It is useful to have an assistant who is equally qualified for performing this therapy. Of course, the patient must be fully instructed about the therapy procedure.