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Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffThe wax in your ears is secreted by glands in the skin that lines your ear canals. The wax and tiny hairs in these passages trap dust and other foreign particles that could damage deeper structures, such as your eardrum.
In most people, a small amount of earwax regularly makes its way to the opening of the ear, where it's washed away or falls out as new wax is secreted to replace it. If you secrete an excessive amount of wax or if earwax isn't cleared effectively, it may build up and block your ear canal.
Additionally, earwax blockages commonly occur when people try to clean their ears on their own by placing cotton swabs or other items in their ears. This often just pushes wax deeper into the ear, rather than removing it.
- Earwax. American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery. http://www.entnet.org/HealthInformation/earwax.cfm. Accessed May 25, 2009.
- McCarter DF. Cerumen impaction. American Family Physician. 2007;75:1523.
- Dinces EA, et al. Cerumen. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 26, 2009.
- Clinical practice guideline: Cerumen impaction. Alexandria, Va.: Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery. http://www.entnet.org/Practice/upload/FINAL-CerumenImpaction-Journal-2008.pdf. Accessed May 26, 2009.
- Beatty CW (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. June 2, 2009.
