The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
Ear Cones
Posted by Anna (Pennsylvania) on 10/20/2018
★☆☆☆☆
"candling" for ear wax is not just useless - it is very BAD! lt compacts wax and pushes it deeper! That's what it did for me!
Ear Cones
Posted by Kay (Destin, Fl) on 09/02/2012
★☆☆☆☆WARNING!
WARNING: I had good results many times, as did many of my friends; but once we had a VERY DANGEROUS experience so I will never do it or recommend it again. I assume it was because of an inferior brand of candle or manufactirer defect. To make a long story short, I stopped the procedure just as roilling HOT WAX melted down the cone into a friends ear! Fortunately I was watching very closely because the candle was not the brand I was accustomed to; this one was more flimsy and not made of sturdy cloth; and it burned hotter & faster; too fast for my comfort and obviulsy so fast it melted the wax coating enough to drip down the come... Very, very dangerous... and could instantly have rendered my friend deaf and/or disfugured had I not stopped immediately!
BEWARE! Having shared this treatment with many folks before the above incident, I noticed that most people do not follow the directions and they burn away too much of the cone before removing it from the ear, which is also very, very dangerous!
For everyones sake it's much safer to use the Hydrogen peroxide treatment (but not if you have a reptured eardrum or other ear problems! )
Ear Cones
Posted by Angelica (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) on 06/07/2012
★☆☆☆☆
I was told that Ear Coning was excellent for removing wax from your ears. I also had never heard any bad stories concerning candling, so, I happily made an appointment to have it done. I have so many problems with my ears now it isn't funny. They crackle all the time (sometimes painfully), and when I blow my nose I can hear the air coming through my ears (never happened before). I realize to some that these experiences may seem unrelated, but I can only conclude, since I never had those issues previously, that the cause was the candling. Also, to debunk this a bit further, when the candler looked at the candles, they said that I had experienced "many" ear infections according to her findings... I only had a couple in my lifetime prior to the candling.
Ear Cones
Posted by Karen (Ellensburg, Wa) on 01/13/2012
★☆☆☆☆
"Candling" to remove ear wax is BS, my husband had it done and brought home his used "candle" to show me all the wax that came out, gross! But he also brought home an unused "candle" we burned it without putting it in his ear and it looked exactly like the one that supposedly removed the wax, just another useless treatment to get your money!
Ear Cones
Posted by Alex (Morgantown, Wv) on 07/15/2011
★☆☆☆☆
Ear candles are illegal in Canada and it is illegal to import them from Canada into the US. While they're not illegal in the US, pretty much all medical science is against them.
I've done them twice before actually, was sold a wholistic cure (by the same place that sold my mom saltwater to relieve arthritis). First one did nothing at all, second one singed my ear a bit, hurt for a few days.
Aside from that, do you really think a little negative pressure from the heat is going to pull an awful disgusting glob of tar out of your ear?
I've had fair success with using over the counter carbamide peroxide treatments (similar to hydrogen peroxide but better for the ear). It's pretty uncomfortable to blow water up your ear, but if it helps then it helps.
Had to go to an ear specialist once and have him suck it out of my ear with a little..... Sucker tool. Don't know how to explain it, a long metal tube that sucks lice a vacuum. Was very uncomfortable and somewhat painful, but so was the ear wax and this helped tremendously.
Go to a drugstore, or go to a doctor, stay away from quackery.
Ear Cones
Posted by Anna (Philadelphia, Pa, usa) on 11/05/2010
★☆☆☆☆
Ear Cones made my earwax more dense and pushed it deeper. I lost heaing for few hours until I went to dr to have lots of earwax flushed out. I'll never use them again.
Ear Cones
Posted by DL (Atlanta, GA) on 03/13/2009
★☆☆☆☆
I did lots of these ear cones in the 1990s, thinking I was removing oodles and oodles of ear wax. My ears itched like crazy for a few days afterwards. Finally my brother and his wife did an experiment and burned down 2 candles to see what happened. Yes, oodles and oodles of what appeared to be ear wax! The candles did make me feel very relaxed.
