Causes Of Earwax Buildup: A Potentially Life-Altering Problem
Being able to hear is often taken for granted. It's a necessary tool for communication, survival, and education. It's also a method by which many spend recreation time. Listening to music, watching and listening to the television, and even something as simple as talking with friends is all made better by being able to hear. However, the ability to hear can become reduced when you allow a buildup of earwax to occur within the ear. Earwax has its uses. For example, it primarily exists to block potentially harmful particles from entering the ear. For those who have experienced earaches before, you're likely grateful for this function of earwax. However, earwax that continues to build up can cause problems as well. As such, it is critical to know the causes of earwax buildup, so you can take steps to keep your ears healthy and functional.
Prone To Producing More Earwax
Sometimes an individual may just be prone to producing more earwax than others. The amount of earwax typically produced in a person is entirely individualized. While this, in itself, isn't a problem, if measures aren't taken to help reduce the amount of wax in an ear, the individual in question might start experiencing some hearing loss. Specialized wax glands in the ear canal produce wax. How much is produced is basically up to your genetic makeup, so it's really a random draw.
A patient may not even realize they produce a lot of earwax until they begin to notice a clogging sensation in their ears. Luckily, for those who produce a lot of earwax, there are a lot of treatments available to help reduce the amount produced. Sometimes it can be as simple as drops in your ear that help soften the wax. These can then leak out of the ear normally. The clogging sensation will be removed, and patients won't have to worry about their ears producing more wax than needed.
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Frequent Use Of Earbuds
While the days of using over-the-head earphones are over, the new earbuds that have become popular over the last few years are actually having an impact on earwax buildups. Frequent use of earbuds, in fact, can cause a bit of damage to your ear's natural cleaning process. New wax is created within the inner ear and pushes old wax to the outer ear. This old wax dries up and falls out of the ear. The regular use of earbuds, however, prevents old wax from being pushed out of the ear.
As a result, individuals left with old wax that has already performed its job of keeping bacteria and other unpleasant particles from entering the ear building up within the ear. This can cause ear aches and other problems associated with the ears and hearing. Not to mention, earbuds can also collect bacteria and old earwax if they're not cleaned regularly. So, you may want to set them aside from time-to-time and appreciate the old over-the-head earphones instead.
Keep reading to reveal the next cause of earwax buildup now.
