{"id":1602,"date":"2019-11-26T19:17:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T19:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alpineent.com\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2019-11-26T19:17:25","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T19:17:25","slug":"the-pros-and-cons-of-earwax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpineent.com\/the-pros-and-cons-of-earwax\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pros and Cons of Earwax"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Earwax, also called \u201ccerumen\u201d, is produced by glands located in the skin of the outer ear canal<\/li>\n<li>The production of earwax is a natural process that cleans, protects, and lubricates the ear canal<\/li>\n<li>People most likely to experience a problem with earwax buildup include: wearers of hearing aids or ear plugs, those who use cotton swabs of other items inside the ear, and those with ear canal deformities that prevent natural earwax removal<\/li>\n<li>Symptoms of earwax blockages include: earaches, feelings of fullness in the ear, partial hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing or noises in the ear), itching, odor, or discharge from the ear, coughing, pain, or infection<\/li>\n<li>Sticking cotton swabs or any other objects in the ear only push wax deeper in the ear canal and can lead to wax blockages against the eardrum<\/li>\n<li>If cotton swabs are pushed too deep in the ear, this can also cause trauma and damage to the ear drum<\/li>\n<li>Home treatments for earwax blockages are most often used to soften wax in the ear; however, it is important not to resort to these methods if there is a possible perforation in the ear drum, as that could potentially lead to an infection<\/li>\n<li>At Alpine Ear, Nose &amp; Throat, physicians and physician assistants often remove earwax with the assistance of a microscope, in order to ensure no damage occurs to the eardrum<\/li>\n<li>ENTs most often utilize a special ear vacuum or small tools to manually remove wax safely and efficiently, which minimize the risk of infection compared to remedies performed at home<\/li>\n<li>Earwax removal done by an ENT is generally quick and painless<\/li>\n<li>It is recommended that patients prone to repeat wax impaction and all hearing aid users see an ENT for routine ear checkups and preventative ear cleanings every six to 12 months<\/li>\n<li>Many hearing aid wearers report an increase in earwax production, since hearing aids can stimulate glands in the ear canal and prevent the normal migration of wax from the ear<\/li>\n<li>Routine cleanings are imperative to hearing aid users as earwax can clog hearing aid microphones and receivers, which impair their overall quality and performance<\/li>\n<li>Audiology assistants at All About Hearing in Fort Collins and Loveland can demonstrate how to properly clean and maintain hearing aids<\/li>\n<li>All About Hearing offers weekly hearing aid Clean &amp; Check times from 10-11 am every Wednesday in the Fort Collins office and 9-10 am every Thursday in the Loveland office<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To learn more about ear cleanings or hearing aid maintenance, please visit our offices or contact us at (970) 221-1177.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earwax, also called \u201ccerumen\u201d, is produced by glands located in the skin of the outer ear canal The production of earwax is a natural process that cleans, protects, and lubricates the ear canal People most likely to experience a problem with earwax buildup include: wearers of hearing aids or ear plugs, those who use cotton&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpineent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpineent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpineent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpineent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpineent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alpineent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpineent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpineent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpineent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}