Earwax or cerumen is a substance secreted to protect the skin of the ear canal against water, bacteria, fungi, and infections from other foreign particles. Audiologist Neel Raithatha from the Hear Clinic recently revealed video footage of removing a large amount of earwax and dead skin from a patient's ears.
The hearing health care professional shared that his patient had not properly cleaned his ears for about 20 years. Raithatha removed about 16 years' worth of earwax and dead skin.
Neel Raithatha is known as The Wax Whisperer for his videos on Youtube for extracting earwax, fluid, and dead infected skin. This particular patient when to Neel with complaints of vertigo, severe pain, and disequilibrium.
Earwax Buildup
Using an excavation camera, The Wax Whisperer captured the patient's ear canal filled with black and sticky earwax that had built up for years. Typically, said Raithatha, earwax extractions take about five to ten minutes. It took him about an hour and a half to complete the extraction.
Raithatha was 'shocked by just how much earwax and dead skin I removed from a single ear.' He even became a little nauseous just looking that the amount of earwax and dead skin he had extracted from the patient. The patient's ears were filled with 'severely impacted earwax and keratin build-up.'
Due to ear infections in the past, the patient had a Radical Mastoidectomy performed. In the procedure, the mastoid bone at the back of the ear is removed due to severe ear infection. The patient had failed to regularly clean his ears for nearly 16 years.
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Extracting Earwax
Doctors would usually remove excess wax by using a small instrument, a curet, or via suction. The earwax can also be flushed out with warm water.
Normally, the ear was would dry up and fall out of the ear with trapped foreign particles such as dust. Sometimes, the wax cannot naturally fall out of the ears and can lead to earwax buildup.
Earwax buildup can result in pain, ringing in the ears, inflammation, and blocked hearing. Severe symptoms that may indicate an ear infection include severe pain, liquid drainage from the ears, loss of balance, and fever.
In another video, Raithatha explained excess earwax can also be the result of the ear anatomy 'where narrowing...twists, and bends, can cause the wax to be impacted.' Other times, really dry, hard earwax can result in friction against the ear canal. Sticky wax would stay in the ear canal instead of migrating out of the ear, he continued.
Like the black earwax from his recent patient, wax darkens inside the ear canal due to oxidization. The audiologist said that it's similar to how an apple or avocado oxidizes when it is cut open. Up to date, The Wax Whisperer has 570 videos on different times of ear extractions including earwax removal, dead skin extraction, and fungal infections.
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