Hearing Health

In this series

The Do’s and Don’ts of Safe Earwax Removal

Expert advice for how to unclog your ear canals safely

Barbara Stepko,

Updated July 06, 2026

AARP

Reviewed by

Carol Flexer, PhD

En español

Updated July 06, 2026

Obencem / Getty Images

Key takeaways:

Earwax protects your ears from dirt, debris, germs and infections.
Too much earwax buildup can harden and block your ear canal.
There are a few ways to safely remove earwax buildup at home.
Sometimes it’s best to have a medical professional remove earwax.

Earwax might not be something you want to think about, but having it is totally normal — as is having it build up, which is also known as impaction. Knowing how to unclog your ear canals and get rid of excess earwax when you have a blockage may help you hear better and prevent ear canal inflammation and infections, pain and more.

What is earwax, and why do we have it?

Earwax — the medical term is “cerumen” — is a substance secreted by the tiny sebaceous and sweat glands that line the walls of your outer ear canal. It protects your eardrum from things like dirt and germs.

“These secretions keep a flow going away from the eardrum toward the opening of the ear, catching dead skin cells, tiny hairs that line the ear canal and other types of microscopic debris along the way,” explains Dr. Mark Vaughan, a family physician and medical director at Auburn Medical Group in Auburn, California. When the earwax reaches the outside of your ear, it typically flakes off. Jaw movements, such as talking and chewing, help move things along.

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Why too much earwax can be a problem

While a little excess earwax is merely an annoyance, too much can create a blockage. That buildup is tough to remove, especially if it’s hard and dry. It can cause difficulty hearing, a stopped-up or full feeling in the ear and pain. Earwax also coats your ear canal, repelling water and preventing your skin from drying out. The wax is slightly acidic, so it “creates an unfriendly environment” for bacteria and fungus that tend to develop in the moist, dark environment of the ear canal, says Dr. Yu-Lan Mary Ying, an otolaryngologist at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. In fact, the earwax of people with diabetes is less acidic, making them more vulnerable to ear canal infections.

The American Academy of Otolaryngology says about 1 in 20 adults and more than one-third of older people experience a buildup of earwax, leading to about 8 million earwax removal procedures each year.

Does earwax increase with age?

As you age, earwax tends to be drier and thicker, so it is more likely to harden and accumulate in your ear canal. Dead skin cells and conditions like eczema that produce dry, flaking skin can make it more difficult for wax to exit the canal.

“One factor has to do with the effects aging has on our glands — including the salivary glands in our mouth, the mucus glands in our nose and throat, and the glands in our ears — whose secretions can change in consistency,” says Dr. Isaac Namdar, an associate professor of otolaryngology at Mount Sinai West Hospital in New York City.

The process of sloughing it off becomes more sluggish with age, says Dr. Anh Nguyen-Huynh, a neurotologist and otologist at the Cleveland Clinic. “Also, one of the things I notice in older patients is that many of them — men in particular — have a copious amount of hair growing in the ear canal, which could impede the movement of skin and earwax. And in some, the outer ear canal becomes narrower and less firm with age, which can make it easy for wax to get trapped.”

He adds, “When ears are making the right amount of wax, it’s actually the sign of a healthy ear.” But some people make too much.

Tips for safe earwax removal

“People think earwax is dirty and needs to be cleaned,” says Nguyen-Huynh. “But our ears are like self-cleaning ovens, designed to get rid of undesirable stuff.” Unless your earwax is creating problems, she says, you shouldn’t have to do anything.

But if it is causing you problems, you can safely remove it. Here’s how.

1. Use a washcloth

After washing your face or stepping out of a steamy shower, cover one finger with a damp washcloth and gently wipe out the nooks and crannies of your outer ear. “De-clogging the most external exit will help with that natural [earwax] migration,” Ying says.

2. Try an earwax softening agent

People who produce a lot of earwax can try using a softening agent — such as mineral oil or 3 percent hydrogen peroxide — to help remove it. Use an eyedropper to apply one or two drops in your ear, and let the fluid flow to the waxy buildup. Then tilt your head so the fluid drains out. Sometimes, using a rubber bulb syringe (you can buy one at your local pharmacy) to gently squeeze warm water into your ear helps dislodge the loosened wax. You can keep irrigating your ear with water until the wax comes out.

But this irrigation isn’t always appropriate, especially if you have a damaged eardrum or a middle ear infection. A hole in the eardrum could allow fluid to get flushed deeper into your ear canal, and if it doesn’t come out, it could cause an outer ear infection. And if you’re not careful, irrigation can perforate the eardrum. What’s more, if you’re softening the plugged-up wax but not dissolving or removing it, the fluid can turn it into a muddy wall that can plug up your ears even more.

3. Use eardrops

If mineral oil and hydrogen peroxide don’t work, try some over-the-counter eardrops to loosen the wax. (Ying recommends Debrox’s earwax removal kit.) Some products include a bulb syringe that you squeeze to flush your ear with warm water, if needed. Just keep in mind the safety concerns about irrigating your ear.

4. Don’t use cotton swabs

It might be tempting to clean out the earwax with a cotton swab, but don’t. You’ll risk serious injury to your eardrum, and you won’t get much earwax, either.

“You might look at your Q-tip and think, Look at this stuff I got out of my ear,” says Vaughan, who regularly sees this in his practice. “But that’s actually wax you got from the sides of the ear canal, after you’ve pushed most of the wax further inside the ear canal.”

When you put a cotton swab inside your ear and hear the tip rustling your tiny hairs, that means you’ve pushed it into a place it shouldn’t be.

Do’s and Don’ts of At-Home Earwax Removal

DO

Use a damp washcloth to wipe the outer portion of the ear each day
Try a drop or two of a softening agent, like baby oil or mineral oil, to remove wax
Consider an over-the-counter product containing oil or hydrogen peroxide to loosen wax

DON’T

Insert cotton swabs, fingers or anything else into your ear canal
Attempt ear candling, which involves putting the base of a hollow candle at the opening of the ear canal and then lighting the wick on the other end to create a vacuum of negative pressure that supposedly encourages earwax to come out. However, this practice isn’t as effective as claims state and can lead to burns.
Irrigate your ears with water if you have a damaged eardrum or middle ear infection
Don’t use tiny tools to scrape or scoop wax from the ear canal, as they can increase the risk of irritation, injury, infection and impacted wax.

Listen up on earbuds

If your body makes a lot of earwax and you use earbuds for many hours daily, it can cause a buildup of wax — and that wax could cause a blockage Nguyen-Huynh notes.

“Wearing earbuds for many hours in a day can also cause irritation to the ear canal and hearing loss from noise exposure,” he says.

Clean your earbuds with a facial tissue, a disinfecting wipe or an alcohol swab when they get dirty, he adds.

When to get medical help for impacted earwax

If you can’t unclog your ear canals on your own, see your primary care physician or an ear, nose and throat doctor to remove the blockage. They have tools and techniques to safely remove impacted wax. “We have the endoscope to let us look inside the ear canal to see exactly how much wax you have and the texture of the wax, and then we decide the best instrument to use to remove it,” Namdar says.

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Barbara Stepko was a longtime health and lifestyle writer, and former editor at Women’s Health and InStyle. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Parade and other national magazines.

Carol Flexer is a distinguished professor emeritus of audiology at the University of Akron. She continues to lecture nationally and internationally and has authored more than 150 publications.