Ear Candling - An Ancient Therapy for our Modern Times

Ear Candling, Coning, or funneling has been around for centuries, used primarily by the Chinese, Tibetan, Grecian, Egyptian, Mayan, Aztec and Native American Indian Cultures. The initial use of Ear Candling was for the purpose of healing and spiritual purification rites, and the cones used were made of pottery clay and filled with various herbs. Other coning materials consisted of reeds, leaves or papyrus.

More recently, German Schools of Medicine have Ear Candling as a component of their educational program.  Some American Indian tribes continue to use this method of healing by blowing smoke into the ear canal or using rolled up newspapers coated with wax.  Today, it is considered to be an Old Home Remedy and continues to be used around the world.

What is Ear Candling?

Ear Candling is a safe, simple, non-invasive natural relaxing method to remove earwax and other debris from inside the ears. Long hollow candles are inserted securely into the ear canal and the warm smoke and heat from the lighted end of the candle moves the wax and other debris upward into the hollow candle. Some believe the smoke crosses the eardrum and smoothes the nasal cavities, Eustachian tube and sinuses.  Others believe that the vacuum within the ear canal causes air to enter the middle ear by way of the Eustachian tube and cross the eardrum, thus allowing the debris to be collected in the ear candle.

When to Use Ear Candling

Do you suffer from frequent sinus headaches or experience dizziness? Do you have a buildup of earwax that is interfering with your hearing ability? If so, a Candling session may be the answer.  Ear Candling can also be used to improve mental clarity, balance the fluids that sometimes cause headaches, reduce excess ear pressure, or help with ringing in the ears (Tinnitus).

Others who would benefit from a Candling Session are those who work around animals or anyone who works in a dusty environment.  The elderly who experience hearing loss or young children plagued with recurrent ear infections or earaches will also benefit from this method.  You may have read that it is no longer the preferred surgical ‘approach’ to insert tubes in the eardrums of children who have frequent ear infections.  Today’s Pediatricians are telling moms to just let the infection run its course and all will be fine.

Do You Hear Me Now?

Maybe you have had frequent ear infections or many sinus headaches from a buildup of sinus pressure, and you begin to notice that your hearing does not seem to be as sharp as usual.  You might choose to find an Ear Candling practitioner, a physician or do nothing at all.  Regardless, it is often helpful to know how the process of hearing occurs.

Hearing, as one of our five senses, is often taken for granted, as most people are not aware of how it occurs until they cannot hear clearly.  The ear flap, or pinna, is the only visible part of the ear as the remaining structures involved with hearing are deeply embedded and protected by the temporal bones of the skull, the part of the skull above each ear.

Sound captured by the pinna travels down the ear canal to the thin strong elastic eardrum, or tympanic membrane.  The sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate, which in turn is passed onto three little bones the size of matchheads in the middle ear.  You may know them as the hammer, anvil and stirrup whereas Medical personnel know them as the malleus, the incus and the stapes.

The sound vibration continues to cross into the inner ear housing the snail shaped cochlea, a structure responsible for helping us maintain our balance as well as transporting sound vibrations.  The vibrations are transported via a specific nerve within our head to the eventual arrival at the hearing or auditory area of the brain. These auditory areas in the brain further identify sounds in relation to pitch, rhythm and loudness and determine whether these sounds are speech, music or noise, thus the simple but complex process of hearing.

Finding an Ear Candling Specialist

So you now know how normal hearing occurs. If and when you notice your hearing becoming less efficient, you may want to consider the quick relief of an Ear Candling session.  Search the altMD specialist directory to find an Ear Candling Specialist near you.