Yellow and flaky or rather brown and syrupy? Earwax comes in all sizes and shapes. But did you know that the structure can also tell something about your origins and age? Professor and ENT doctor Olivier Vanderveken explains what the color of your earwax can mean and takes a look at the two main types: “In this case it can even turn gray.”
“First of all, you are not supposed to remove earwax or cerumen from your ear yourself,” says Olivier Vanderveken, head of the ENT and Head and Neck Surgery (UZA) department. “The purpose of earwax is to protect the vulnerable skin in the ear canal and then carry dirt such as hairs outside. That dirt will eventually come out itself, because you wash yourself or go swimming, for example.”
“It is therefore not necessary to use an ear stick to remove the dirt. You only run the risk of sticking the stick too deep and causing damage.”
So stay away from ear sticks. Although there are differences between earwax?
“Beats. There are several factors that play a role. There is age. We often see that in older people the earwax will thicken more. Your origin can also have an impact. We can distinguish two types.”
“People with Asian roots more often have dry earwax. The substance will then come out in hard flakes. In our region and in Africa we see more viscous and moist earwax. This species is less likely to emerge in large ‘chunks’. Although we also regularly see the ‘Asian’ type here.”
Finally, there are also differences in color. “We generally see that people have yellow earwax, but if it has been there for a long time, it can also become brownish and even grayer. If the earwax is very moist and contains a lot of flakes of skin, it may also look white. In some cases it also looks red or dark brown. This may indicate bleeding. This can happen if you damage your ear while cleaning it.”
(Read more below the photo)
Can this also say something about your health?
“It is not the case that we can link certain conditions to a certain type of earwax. But it is true that one type is ‘more difficult’ to treat with ear plugs than the other. This is the case with the Asian type of earwax. Because this type of earwax is so hard, we have to remove it with small hooks. We have to carefully go between the ear canal and the cerumen plug and pull it away.”
“Compare it to uncorking a wine. In ideal circumstances, the ear plug then comes out of the ear canal in one piece and in one movement. However, sometimes the stopper crumbles into small pieces and we have to remove them with small tweezers. That is a job of ten to fifteen minutes.”
A viscous ear plug is often easier to treat. “We use a kind of small vacuum cleaner for this. Because the earwax does not form a large, hard plug, this is the easiest way. The special vacuum cleaner will allow us to suck up all the viscous remains until the ear is nice and free again up to the eardrum.”
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Tags: older thicker ENT doctor main types earwax Guide Health
