Can you imagine the pleasure of a BRAND NEW sensory experience at the ripe age of fifty-four? Allow me to enlighten you!
The OTHER sensory experience I had that night was ear candling. I had never heard of it before Saturday night. Simply never heard of it. Jim came out of the bedroom or bathroom with this 10 or 12" long tapered candle-looking like thing. It actually felt like waxed cloth or waxed heavy paper that was spiraled into a long, slender conical shape. You could see through it from one end to the other.
I laid on the sofa on my side with my head relatively horizontal. Jim took a paper plate, made a nickel-sized hole in the center, placed the ear candle through the hole, lit the top of the cone and gently placed it in my ear. I really can't say that I experienced any sounds or smells with the procedure, although after about ten minutes I felt some pressure inside my ear and pushed the ear candle away from my head slightly.
When he was done, he showed me that there was this pale yellowish powder inside the hollow candle. This was (supposedly) the stuff that the ear candle had drawn out of my ear, wax and dirt and dead cells, I guess. I tapped some of it into my hand, smeared it on my palm and smelled it. It smelled waxy and slightly burnt, but it certainly didn't have the smell of the detritus that comes out of one's belly button or behind your ears when you haven't washed for several days. It didn't smell funky at all.
I will admit that I had my reservations about ear candling's efficacy, but I also was enjoying Jim's ministrations. Being the go-for-the-gusto dragon that I am, I asked him if he would do my other ear too? Sure, he replied.
So, he did the other ear, with pretty much the same results. Pale yellowish powder, no funky smell.
When we got home, I googled ear candling and got an EARFUL (ha-ha). Here's what one typical site said:
Why Ear Candling Is Not a Good Idea(sigh) So much for new sensory experiences, huh! I probably won't do any more ear candling. I'm glad I can say that I tried it though. But, then there's that vibrating spider thing ...
"Ear candling," also known as auricular candling or coning, refers to various procedures that involve placing a cone-shaped device in the ear canal and supposedly extracting earwax and other impurities with the help of smoke or a burning wick. The origins of candling are obscure. Ancient Tibet, China, Egypt, the pre-Columbian Americas, and even the mythical city of Atlantis are cited as possible contributors. The procedures supposedly create a low-level vacuum that draws wax and other debris out of the ear canal. Some proponents even claim that impurities are removed from the inner ear, the facial sinuses, or even the brain itself, all of which are somehow connected to the canal.
... Since wax is sticky, the negative pressure needed to pull wax from the canal would have to be so powerful that it would rupture the eardrum in the process. However, candling produces no vacuum. Researchers who measured the pressure during candling of ear models found that no negative pressure was created. The same investigators candled eight ears and found that no ear wax was removed and candle wax was actually deposited in some of them!
The Bottom Line
For most people, ear wax moves along the ear canal and eventually makes it to the outside, taking with it any accumulated dirt or other matter. Compacted ear wax should be removed by a physician or other health professional using legitimate instruments. Candling is both ineffective and dangerous.
