- Earwax — or cerumen, as it’s officially called — serves an important purpose. It helps keep your ear canal safe and protected.
- Earwax probably isn’t something that you spend a lot of time thinking about, unless the amount you have is cause for concern.
- Chances are, if the amount of earwax you have isn’t causing problems, you generally have a normal amount.
Earwax is intended to help protect your ear canal from all manner of things that could potentially hurt it. And though you might not spend a lot of time thinking about your earwax, but with more than the right amount, you might experience some irritating symptoms.
If you’re dealing with too much earwax and it’s negatively affecting you, talking to your doctor, an audiologist, or an ear, nose, and throat doctor (otherwise known as an ENT), can help, as they should be able to remove excess wax if need be. Here’s how you know if you have the right amount, or too much or too little.
Your ears don’t typically feel itchy.
If you don’t have enough earwax, your ears might be sort of itchy. Harvard Health Letter noted that not having enough earwax can result in uncomfortable ears. So if you only get occasional itches, but otherwise don’t really notice that they feel uncomfortable, then you likely have a normal amount of earwax or, potentially, too much.
Ear infections are basically unheard of.
Ear infections can be super painful, but they can also tell you something about how much earwax might be in your ears. Healthline reported that you might experience an earache if you have a buildup of wax in your ear canals and that if it’s not dealt with, that could lead to an infection. If pain and infections aren’t a frequent part of your life, it’s possible that you could have a normal amount of earwax.
You don’t notice many changes in the way your ears feel.
"Generally, if you don't notice any problems or unusual feelings in your ears, then you don't need to worry about ear wax," Dr. Meryl Miller, AuD, an Atlanta-area audiologist, told INSIDER. If your ears feel the same way they typically feel, then you probably don’t have an earwax issue.
Your hearing is pretty much the same as it usually is.
If your hearing doesn’t seem to be noticeably different than it typically is, you likely have a normal amount of earwax. But if your ears feel in any way blocked, you might have too much wax, which is getting in the way of things.
"If your ear feels blocked up, there could be a number of causes, one of which is wax," Miller said. "So, if your ear feels clogged up, see your primary care physician to look in your ear. Or, if you have an existing relationship with an audiologist or ear, nose, and throat physician, you can see one of the two."
Your doctor hasn’t told you that you’re dealing with a blockage or impaction.
"When you go to your primary care physician for your annual check-up, they usually will look in your ears and let you know if you have any wax buildup that needs to be professionally removed," Miller said. No warnings from your doctor, as well as a lack of other symptoms, likely means that the amount of earwax in your ears is pretty normal.
"The ear canal is self-cleaning," Miller said. "Dead skin cells in your ear canal naturally migrate out of the ear. This migration also carries wax out of the ear. Often a wax buildup is self-induced. When someone tries to clean their ears, [they] may remove some wax, but also may push wax deeper into the ear. This interrupts the natural migration of dead skin cells and wax out of the ear. If you push enough wax deeper into the ear, you can completely occlude your ear with wax causing a temporary hearing loss."
If you’re concerned that the amount of earwax you have in your ear isn’t normal, sharing your concerns with a doctor, audiologist, or ENT could help get to the bottom of things. If you do have something that needs to be treated — like a buildup of wax or a blockage of some sort — they’ll be able to help and your ears will be feeling better before you know it.
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