EAR CANDLES - Did anyone's Grandma use ear candles on them?

Question

I was shocked a few years ago when I saw ear candles ina health store. They were $12. Heck, you can make your own out of an old bedsheet and a melted candle. My Grandma showed me how to do it 40 years ago. It's amazing how well they work.

RICK I doubt if it is quakery. Have you ever tried it? A whole lot of junk comes out of the ear.

Answer 1

make em, use em and swear by them!

Answer 2

I bought ear candles to try to help my dad, whose ears have a lot of wax build up that drops had not helped. After using them, my husband showed me articles he found on line describing the dangers, and the fact that they don't really help. When you look inside the candle after using it, all the gunky stuff you see in there that you think is ear wax is just from the candle itself.

Answer 3

We prefer the ear drops or warmed olive oil method. The ear canal is, apparently, a self-cleaning orifice but there are times when a little assistance is required. Glad to find out after reading your question properly and others' answers it wasn't what we first thought it was.......ear wax...candles....making candles from ear wax! Eeeeugh!

Answer 4

I'm into the visual. There I am with one candle sticking out of each ear. I will let Wally light them and Nannie keep an eye out for my potentially flaming hair! I guess I would need to be standing upright in a corner, or on the Thanksgiving table. LOL

Answer 5

I had never heard of this until your question - hence, had to go do some research and got this info. -

"Ear candling, also called ear coning or thermal-auricular therapy, is a folk medicine practice said to assist the natural clearing of earwax (cerumen) and remove toxins from a person's ear by means of a hollow candle placed in the ear. It involves lighting one end of the hollow candle, and placing the other end in the ear canal. According to medical researchers, it is both dangerous and ineffective."

My grandmother used ear drops that were designed to soften the wax ....that's all....glad she didn't use this method!..lol

Answer 6

When I was growing up in South Texas I used to get ear aches we were poor and going to a Doctor was not something we did. I remember one time I was crying because me ear hurt. My grandmother and my Great Aunt came into my room and they got a newspaper and they shaped it in a funnel and placed it in my ear, My great Aunt then proceeded to light the end of the "funnel" I felt a "whoooosh" and then all of a sudden my ear felt better.

I don't know if it was because I was in awe over what they were doing, but it worked. We came from a Mexican American family. Later on when we would get together as adults I brought this up, several others in my group said, hey they did that to me to!!

Explain the "science" in that type of "cure" my grandmother had. This was the 1960's

Answer 7

A visiting nurse who was taking care of my husband used ear candles on him when he was complaining about his ears. He said it really helped. It pulled a lot of the gunk out of his ears. The nurse told us she gets the ear candles from a family out in CA..

Answer 8

Rick is right- it's proven they don't work. The "junk" is actually wax from the ear candle itself.

Answer 9

My family never used them. I dated a guy who's family did, and we bought some when my son had an ear ache. It worked wonderfully!!! And yes, TONS of stuff came out of this kid's ear - it was a bit gross.
But they are expensive here too.

Answer 10

I love the Americans. But you live and learn on this site.

I would not have let my grandmother near my ears with a burning candle. My mind boggles!!!

Answer 11

Ear candling is nothing more than quackery. Period.

EDIT:

To alcaholicdemon, above:

If it worked, your daughter wouldn't have needed two surgeries, now would she?

ANOTHER EDIT:

Ask an M.D. for his or her opinion.
The fact is that, if this process really accomplished anything, the pharmaceutical companies would have grabbed it, patented it, and charged a fortune to use it, and the politicians would have outlawed the home version, under the guise of the War On Drugs.