Bloggin' Beauheart: Ear Wax Candles? Mythbuster's Special Edition

During my latest Kalamazoo visit we happened to talk about ear wax candles, those long wax tubes you stick in your ear that magically 'suck' out excess ear wax while they burn. I've heard multiple people swear that they work and that using the candles helps to prevent ear wax buildup. A few quick searches on the world-wide interweb brings up tons of sites challenging the idea that ear wax candles do much of anything.

We decided to test the idea that the candles remove wax and used ourselves as subjects.

Bec, subject #1

Brian, subject #2, who giggled through all of it. That's Aiden in the background (Bec and Brian's daughter)

Subject #3, in a lonely glass jar

After we burned each candle to the sticker (according to the instructions this is the proper amount of time), we cut each candle apart. They're just hollow tubes made of a gauze material that's impregnated with flammable waxes.

Aiden, amateur photographer, and subject #3. The smoke from the candle completely filled the little jar and it trickled up and out like a smoke-machine at a Poison concert.

And the results? How about I show you and you can guess which one is from the jar?

Key:

A is Bec's left ear

B is the control, only half opened

C is Brian's right ear

D is the control, fully opened

Summary. The candles don't remove any earwax. All of the wax you see in the candle after you burn it is from the candle itself and there is a lot of variability between candles. Bec's candles looked squeaky clean while the control was one of the dirtiest.

While it seems the ear wax candle is a myth, some of our other results made us think they might be bad for your ears. In the control jar that filled with smoke while we burned it, ostensibly this is also what would happen in your ear canal, we noticed a lot of white wax soot that built up on the bottom of the jar. Now if that stuff accumulates in your ear, it can't be good.