My experience with ear candling

I’ve talked about my weak digestive system in previous posts. This problem is partially due to allergies and partially due to an energy blockage around my solar plexus, or Manipura chakra. One of the many physical symptoms I get from this weak digestive system is a production of a lot of ear wax, it’s a bit gross I know. Apart from being a bit yuck and really annoying, this overproduction of ear wax makes my hearing not as good as it should be.

I’ve always considered ear candling to be a good solution. For those of you who are not familiar with the process of ear candling, I’ll refer you to about.com which has a great pictorial. If you’re a little bit squeamish, be careful there’s ear wax in these photos!

Ear Candling Pictorial
http://healing.about.com/od/earcandling/ig/Ear-Candling/?once=true&

How my appointment went

What I wasn’t prepared for was how relaxing the procedure would be. The warmth from the candle and the beautiful little crackling noises were incredibly relaxing. Each ear took around 20 minutes so by the time the practitioner was half way through my second ear I was fighting to keep my eyes open, all I wanted to do was fall asleep! There was no pain at all and I couldn’t feel any kind of suction or vacuum. Occasionally I felt a slight warm liquid feeling in my ear as if wax and liquid were moving around but it wasn’t unpleasant.

Even though ear wax was successfully sucked out of my ears, the procedure didn’t work as well as it should because I have small ear canals. Apparently ear candling doesn’t work as well for those with smaller than average ear canals. It still moved a lot around though and I did feel a bit clearer in my ears, nose and sinuses. I also felt quite light headed after the procedure and waited about an hour before I felt confident enough to drive. I was advised by my practitioner to drink a lot of water to prevent a throat infection from post nasal drip.

The not so good part

That evening my sinuses felt quite sore and continued to be sore on and off for the next few weeks. I blame my small ear canals, I’m sure it moved everything around but didn’t do a good enough job of getting everything out. Unfortunately the sinus problem will probably prevent me from getting ear candling again which is a pity because the procedure was so beautiful and relaxing and I know it works incredibly well for a lot of people.

My practitioner advised me to put two drops of tea tree oil into each ear then put a cotton wool ball in my ears to stop the oil from running out. This softens the ear wax which helps it to come out by itself. She thought this may be a better alternative for me than ear candling and all the other over the counter ear wax products on the market. I haven’t tried this yet but I definitely intend to.

The appointment cost $50 and lasted about an hour. I recommend ear candling to anyone who has a problem with blocked ears from too much ear wax, except for those like me who have small ear canals. I also recommend trying the drops of tea tree oil, it’s practically free, natural and you can do it yourself. I’ll definitely be giving it a go.

Frances Kerr

Fran Kerr is the founding editor of High on Health. To cure your acne, sign up to Fran's FREE acne cure mini-course or download her latest how to guide, Eat Away Your Acne.

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