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i have been a user, believer, then non-believer of ear candling.
my first experience was in mexico 3 yrs ago after too much scuba diving to depths of almost 100 ft. i was deaf in one ear for a few days (and starting to enjoy being able to ignore my S.O. when she was on one side of me), but thought that it might cause problems with hearing the baby. (awesome super soaker link, redlemon). the lady in la farmacia told me to try candles. i did, and my hearing was instantly restored. that seems like a heck of a coincidence. how do they naysayers explain this? was it psychosomatic?
about one year later, when ear pain returned (but not the accompanying deafness) i tried them again to no avail. (i was then still a believer) but was amazed at the amount of "gunk" in the used/burnt candle. so i conducted the above mentioned experiment. one candle in the ear, one candle out. the "in ear" candle was a different person with ear pain so there was no possibility that my ear was cleaned out from the initial candling. both the in and out candles looked identical after burning. i was no longer a believer.
BUT i am in love with the warm water pressure wash at the doctor's office. in july, severe ear pain returned to me, i went to doctor to be told that i had the familiar impacted ear wax. after a very long wash with the spray bottle (it felt really good!) the nurse gasped and i heard a clunk in the pan below my ear. she had removed a garbanzo bean sized lump of ear wax and said that it was easily the largest thing to come out of an ear she'd seen in her 20+ yrs of service. sweet! the other ear, same story, only she broke up the "bean" so we couldn't really tell it's full size. we could only surmise that too much swimming had caused the problems.
isopropyl alcohol (not ethanol as far as i know) does help to dry the ear out if necessary.
i do not use q-tips, as i have been advised against them by my doctors, who said they only push heavy wax down in. i produce an excessive amount of ear wax. it normally just falls out. seriously. i feel it rolling out when it does.
invest in an otoscope, spray/squeeze bottle, and a little ear bedpan type thingy to catch the water and wax. and learn to do the washing out at home. then i'll pay you to do mine next time i need it.
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xoxo
doodle
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