h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ok ear candling IS NOT sticking a wax candle in yoru ear. That would be very stupid and irresponsible.

Ear candles are made of sheet of slow burning flammable material which is rolled up so that it is a hollow tube. There is a second layer at the bottom end rolled into the tube structure called a filter which is where the wax collects and the entire tube is completely hollow. You then light the top. The flame creates a vacume inside the tube and also warms the wax to soften it. The result is that the wax is drawn up the tube by the vacume created by the flame burning off the oxygen inside of the tube.

The stucture of the candle itself means that ash very rarely fals off and the candler will regularly remove the already burnt out section of the ear candle. As there is a vacume inside of the candle nothing falls back into it and as there is no wax in the candle as such there is nothing to drip down inside of the ear so there is little to no risk of getting any foreign body lodged in your ear.

Once the wax is drawn up it is trapped in the filter section of the candle and can be removed safely and even unravelled so that you can see how much wax has been removed.

The comments by the writer of the article that candling is ineffective and that wax can apparently drop into the ear is fundamentally wrong and only goes to show the severe lack of research involved but also demonstrates a dangerous tendancy to make uninformed presumptions. The important question being how has this person seen fit to write an article on ear wax without researching it properly first and making such rash and wholly incorrect comments?

Come on BBC this isn't the standard we expect.

I dids research it. This is one of the articles I consulted and is referenced from the Entry:

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/candling.html

The word 'candle' was s'posed to be in inverted commas to indicate that it isn't a conventional candle. There should've been a footnote to explain the structure of the 'candle'. I'll get this put right in 'Editorial Feedback'.

For further referece please note that in h2g2 we expect POLITE constructive comments, not abrasive ones like yours!

BTW you're not just criticising the author when you make such comments, but everyone who contributes to PR - one bof the functions of which is to identfy and point out mistakes, factual errors, sloppy explanation etc etc.

Hi "thesethfolen". We've made some changes to this Entry now to more accurately describe candling, but we still say it is dangerous, as the evidence shows this.

My intention was never to offend anybody (I was porbably having a bad day when I wrote that comment) so appologies for that.

The article you posted certainly makes for an interesting read, I am pretty confident that my sinuses or brain have never been unblocked by an ear candling, I have also never come across an ear candle made of news paper so thats certainly a new and concerning prospect as well.

I can only really speak from experience but, I have never known a good quality ear candle to drip wax either inside or outside the ear. One of the safety precautions taken is that one removes the burnt up tail end of the candle at regular intervals so that it doesn't get too long and spill ash all over the place and I have never known of anyone injured by an ear candling. although I am sure like any proceedure it has its risks they are greatly minimalised, if not removed altogether, by following safety precautions carefully and properly.

Having unwrapped many an ear candles and seen what collects in the filter at the bottom, and also having first hand experience of the before and after of ear candling, it may well be that it doesn't work the way we thought it did but it certainly does something positive.

Anyway all in all an interesting, and somtimes hilarious article (brain cleansing indeed!!) thanks for posting it.