Quantcast
Earwax Removal with Olive Oil | The Old Farmer's Almanac

Earwax Removal with Olive Oil

Photo Credit
Pixabay

How to Remove Earwax Using Olive Oil

Margaret Boyles
September 25, 2017
Print Friendly and PDF

Do you ever experience a deafening buildup of ear wax? It usually just builds up naturally. Here’s my favorite method of earwax removal: using olive oil!

Earwax Removal with Olive Oil

You should never attempt to dig out earwax buildup yourself. However, you’ll often be able to get rid of the excess earwax yourself.

Years ago my doctor recommended an olive-oil and warm-water procedure to remove a buildup of earwax safely at home. When I suspect the wax buildup, I get out my gear:

  • an eye-dropper
  • a hand-held bulb syringe 
  • a little olive oil

I sterilize the dropper and the syringe in boiling water, warm (to skin temperature) some oil on the stove, and use the eye-dropper to insert a few drops of the warmed oil into each ear, tilting my head to one side to allow the oil to flow down into my ear canal.

I then go to sleep for the night, placing a cotton ball in my ear and a towel on my pillow to absorb any oil leaks.

In the morning, I fill the syringe with warm water and, kneeling in my bathtub, tilt my head sideways and deliver a strong squirt into each ear. Sometimes it takes a few swishes of warm water and a few good shakes of the head before the wax ball slides out.

Don’t use a pressurized device (e.g., a Water Pick) to flush out the wax, as it could damage your eardrum. Also avoid using tools like Q-Tips, as they could push the wax deeper into the ear.

Occasionally, I have to repeat the process another evening. Other times, the wax comes out without any warm-water syringing.

For decades, this technique has worked well for me. But if I experienced pain, swelling, or unusual sensations in my ear before or after using this technique, I’d definitely see my doctor.

Words of Caution

Doctors warn against removing ear wax unless symptoms develop (sense of pressure/swooshing, ringing, or roaring in the ears). Earwax serves important health benefits: It lubricates and cleans the ear canal, picking up bits of dirt, dust, and dead skin that stick to it on the way out. The wax also contains antibacterial substances that help prevent infection. It generally removes itself without help.

Experts also warn against poking cotton swabs or anything else into your ears that might push the wax ball further down into the ear canal. Wearing ear buds for MP3 listening or ear plugs for sleep may also encourage wax buildup by blocking its normal exit route.

Interesting Earwax

Frugal folks in times past have used earwax for a variety of purposes:

  • Medieval scribes mixed earwax (among many other substances) to prepare the pigments they used to illustrate illuminated manuscripts.
  • The 1832 edition of the American Frugal Housewife recommended earwax as a remedy for cracked lips and noted that “nothing was better than earwax to prevent the painful effects resulting from a wound by a nail [or] skewer.”
  • Dating back to medieval times, seamstresses would sometimes use their own earwax to stop the cut ends of threads from fraying.

Learn More

Want more home remedies? Check out Natural Remedies for Migraines, Natural Remedies for Cough Relief, or even Home Remedies for Pets!

Home and Health

More Like This

2023 Almanac Club

Comments

Kathy (not verified)

2 days 7 hours ago

When I was young, I’m 68 now, my mother always used warm oil for earaches. It always worked! As for ear wax, we never had any problems but my husband, who worked in the TV, industry, always had to put ear buds in his ears and, even now has ear problems. I had never heard of the garlic drops but I will try that next time.

George Chudolij (not verified)

4 months 3 weeks ago

According to my ENT doc the best ( and least messy) way of removing ear wax is by scraping it out under direct vision with a curette made for that purpose. He doesn't think that using dissolving liquids like Debrox work well; I agree.

I have tried Debrox a few times and it has NEVER worked. The last time I used it twice a day for 5 days and squirt the warm water in to get the wax out. STILL NOTHING. GOOD LUCK if you're using Debrox. It doesn't work.

Geoffrey Whitlock (not verified)

4 years 8 months ago

This is a subject I relate strongly to. I've used olive oil for my ears, using a dropper, then flushing them with a 50ml vet syringe, for many years. It really is the best way. A doctor I had 50 years ago (back when doctors were doctors), suggested a drop or two of oil each day or so, just to keep the wax soft and easy to remove. I think it's good to put a drop or two in the ears after a syringe job, to keep a thin film of oil where the wax has just been removed....
Once in a blue moon I'd get an itchy infection and it'd hard to resist the temptation to poke around with a cotton bud; I remember being warned to never put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow. But this itchy infection is easily sorted out with garlic juice; the method being to make a mix of garlic juice with a ration of 1 part juice to 5 or 6 parts pure water. Exactly what ratio one uses is dependent on one's pain threshold. A couple of mill in the ear canal and tilt the head to keep it there .... should only take a couple of minutes. The slight pain is the action of the infection being killed; once the pain stops, the infection - and that annoying itch - are gone. Garlic is a powerful natural antibiotic and has many ways of being used for all kinds of things. (Some people even eat the stuff)
That's my method of ear care - olive oil, a small syringe and a garlic juicer if needed. The trick I've never learned though is to do these things as soon as there's a need to rather than wait until I can't stand it anymore ....

Jeda Cabu (not verified)

7 years 5 months ago

Have you ever experienced of swelling in some part inside of your ear?