Originally Posted by: subvertbeats on Thu, 17 February 2011 I cam across this NHS (UK National Health Service) site for medical professionals in the UK, that I thought would be of interest to folks on here
http://www.cks.nhs.uk/earwax A lot of great information, though mainly focussed on how to deal with earwax once built up.
What do you folks do to help slow the build up of earwax?
Has anyone noticed the influence of diet in this area?
If you understand the way the ear works, you will know that hairs and hair cells in the inner ear canals are a critical part of how our auditory system works, yet something that I only discovered from reading the above referenced article is that individuals with lots of hairs in their outer canals are more prone to the build up of wax.
Personally, I sometimes am prone to eczema in my outer ear canals, and this makes my ears generate more wax. An ENT specialist prescribed using drops of a betamethasone solution - typically used as a scalp application - which when used regularly (a couple of drops in each ear every couple of weeks) has pretty much seen my ears remaining eczema free for several years now, which has in turn greatly reduced the build up of wax, and the subsequent need to have them cleared out every once in a while.
If I do feel a little build up of wax, I treat it early with Otex drops (hydrogen peroxide) which softens the wax greatly, usually enough for it to dissipate on its own.
FWIW the best site I ever came across for info on how the ear works was this page on a hearing aids site:
http://hearingaidscentral.com/howtheearworks.asp --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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