Stop Using Hydrogen Peroxide to remove Earwax!

You're still using hydrogen peroxide to clean your ears?

When I was in high school science class, our teacher taught us how to clean earwax out of our own ears using hydrogen peroxide and blasting wax out of our ears using a syringe like this one. Now, I want you to imagine the amount of chaos that ensued when we had 30 high schoolers trying to perform a procedure that is typically reserved for medical professionals. Not only did we not get any earwax out, but we ended up spraying hydrogen peroxide all over the place, getting it on our skin, and even in our eyes, not to mention some students actually got sick because the hydrogen peroxide was too cold, and in case you were unaware, anytime that you put something cold into one of your ears, it can make you dizzy. That's why in this video, I'm gonna show you why you should never be using hydrogen peroxide to clean earwax out of your own ears and what you should be doing instead.

Now, it is not uncommon for people to think that hydrogen peroxide is a good way to remove earwax. After all, hydrogen peroxide has been a household remedy for decades and can be used for a variety of different things. At some point, even doctors started recommending hydrogen peroxide as a disinfectant for a cut, and yes, even as a earwax removal solution. However, now doctors are starting to discourage the use of hydrogen peroxide as a household remedy because in high concentrations it can be dangerous and for earwax removal, it's not even that effective. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, otherwise known as the CDC, hydrogen peroxide, even in low concentrations, can be dangerous when coming in contact with your eyes, nose and throat, and if not used carefully, can be unsafe. And be careful because the CDC also says that high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide at 10% or above are corrosive even to your skin, and considering that your entire ear canal all the way down to and including your eardrum is comprised of skin, putting hydrogen peroxide inside of your ear canal at best is an irritant, and at worse can be corrosive.

But more important, hydrogen peroxide does not do a good job at removing earwax. Those bubbles that you hear when you pour inside of your ear that a lot of people think is breaking down earwax doesn't do anything. It is basically a placebo effect. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're like, okay, Cliff, you're an audiologist. Of course, you're telling me not to try to remove my own earwax with hydrogen peroxide because you want me to come into your clinic so you can charge me money to do it. Well, that is not what I'm telling you because nothing would make me happier than you removing your own earwax, so I don't have to do it anymore. All right, now that we're on the same page, what should you be using instead of hydrogen peroxide to remove earwax out of your own ears from the comfort of your own home that is both safe and effective?

Well, some professionals may recommend a typical carbonide peroxide solution in concentrations that are safe to use inside of your ears that can be picked up at your local pharmacy. However, I always recommend that my patients use Earwax MD from Eosera, today's video sponsor, and I'll tell you why. I started recommending Earwax MD five years ago inside of my clinic because of how disappointed I was in the effectiveness of hydrogen peroxide and these other carbonide peroxide solutions that I had previously recommended. Earwax MD's ingredients of water, glycerin, sodium bicarbonate, and potassium bicarbonate are clinically proven to safely and effectively dissolve ear wax in as little as 15 minutes. Just check out this time lapse video of Earwax MD compared to the leading brand of over-the-counter earwax removal drops that use carbonide peroxide. As you can see, the carbonide peroxide solution creates bubbles, but it hardly did anything to dissolve the earwax.

The Earwax MD, on the other hand, is extremely effective in breaking down even the most stubborn earwax, so it can be easily removed from your ears. After you've let Earwax MD do its job to break down the earwax, all you have to do is flush out your ears with warm water using a simple bulb syringe or the Wax Blaster MD. Not only is Earwax MD extremely effective, but it is also safe to use. Chances are, if you're watching this video, you are strongly considering using hydrogen peroxide to clean the wax out of your ears, or you tried it before and it didn't work, or even worse, you tried it before, but you had a bad reaction to it. Well, as an audiologist who removes earwax all of the time inside of my clinic, I'm here to tell you to not use hydrogen peroxide anymore because you have safe and even more effective options out there to do it. Just make sure that whatever you use to clean earwax out of your ears, that it's safe and that it's effective, and this means no more hydrogen peroxide no matter what you've heard online.