Ear wax: should I clean it with ear buds?

No, you should not clean ear wax with ear buds. This needs to be said clearly upfront because doing so blindly puts you at real risk of impaction, canal injury, and even eardrum perforation.

To understand why, it helps to know what ear wax actually is. It's a secretion from the ceruminous and sebaceous glands, and it's designed to clean itself through a natural process of migration outwards. Ear wax also serves real purposes: it moisturizes the skin of the outer ear and helps keep dust and foreign particles from getting further inside.

When you use an ear bud, you're essentially working blind inside a narrow canal, so you can easily injure the canal lining or push wax deeper instead of removing it. Over time, this pushed-in wax builds up, leading to accumulation and impaction, which can be genuinely painful. Cleaning also strips away the natural moisturizing effect, causing itching, which tempts you to clean again with a bud, and this repeated rubbing eventually causes abrasion and infection in the ear canal.

If there is wax buildup in the ear, or there is pain or blockage in the ear, then one should visit the doctor, and if required, he will clean it with the micro suction under the microscopy under vision.