Are your ears normal?

The age old question that many contemplate: ‘Am I normal?’

And of course, the answer to that question is never simple.

What we can do for you while reading through this series is to help you understand the different types of hearing level and consider your options at each of these stages using our expert advice.

Starting with your outer ear

First thing that may come to mind is: “I have an outer ear?!”

Yes,without going too deep into the anatomical description of your ears, we say that the ear comes in three parts: the outer, the middle and the inner. I will get onto the latter two a bit later.

The outer ear is the outside; the parts that you can touch and also includes the ear canal (where you can also touch, but we strongly discourage it to protect yourself).

What is the outer ear supposed to do?

A normal outer ear’s job is to take in the sounds around you and pass them through to your eardrum. Essentially, it’s all about getting the sound waves inside your head.

What could possibly go wrong there?

Imagine that you are in a room with a friend having a chat. You can hear nice and clearly. Then, all of a sudden a wall forms between where you are both standing. This wall prevents the sound waves from your mouths getting to your friend’s outer ears.

Well, in a very similar fashion, when there is something obstructing the sound waves getting to your eardrum, you can’t hear as well. These obstructions can come in a range of objects such as: ear wax, dead skin, dust among many other things.

Your ear naturally tries to get rid of these, but like the rest of our bodies, ear canals come in all shapes and sizes – we should know as we’ve seen a whole lot of them!  That means blockages may form and you may need an expert to help unclog the wax.

In the past, ear wax syringing was seen as the best method of removal; just like it suggests, by pushing water into the ear canal, the debris will be cleared. Great right? Yes, for a while. However, it was soon discovered that this method was a bit too forceful.

Your ears are fragile pieces of equipment and in many expert’s opinion (including ours), brute force is not the answer.

Instead, it is best to opt for a more gentle procedure.

We have worked on a treatment called Ear Wax Microsuction that ticks all the boxes to clear the Outer Ear and ensure that the sound waves around you are getting to your ear drum without any obstructions.

It is a simple procedure, but requires a great deal of skill to carry out.

If you would like to learn more about ear wax microsuction, you can find our full explanation right here

Look out for Part 2 of ‘Are your Ears Normal?’ where we will be discussing the middle ear.