Hey, Squeaks!

I have a question for you: Have you ever put your finger in your ear and wondered what that waxy stuff in there is? It’s okay, you can be honest!

It might be sticky and yellow, or dry and flaky. But either way, it’s earwax! And it’s really important for protecting your ears.

Earwax is also called cerumen, and it’s made by special tiny parts of the ear canal inside your ear. Ears are pretty amazing. There’s the part you can see on the outside, like your ear lobes, but there’s also a whole lot of stuff happening inside of your ear!

Your ear canal, where your earwax comes from, is kind of like a tunnel that connects to the outside of your ear. Your ears are always making earwax, but you don’t make any kind of wax anywhere else in your body. After the earwax is made, it moves from the middle of your ear canal, to the outer part of your ear canal where you can easily see, and even touch it!

And you know what, Squeaks? Your earwax is moving right now, as we’re talking When your mouth moves around as you talk and chew, that helps push the earwax along, toward the outside of your ear. So talking to you right now is keeping my earwax in motion, too!

Earwax may seem pretty simple, but it has a lot of jobs. Most importantly, it keeps your ears protected! It moisturizes your ears to keep them from getting too dry and itchy, and it also helps get rid of tiny pieces of dead skin from your ear canal. b It also has the really important job of keeping germs out of the inside of your ear, where they could give you an infection.

Earwax also protects your eardrums: a thin, skin-like layer inside your ears that helps you hear sounds. Since it’s so sticky, earwax can stop and catch any pesky specks of dust and dirt before they get to your sensitive eardrums. So, earwax is totally awesome!

And there’s nothing special you need to do to get rid of it or keep your ears clean — just taking baths is usually enough. Different people have different kinds of earwax — there’s the extra sticky kind, and the dry and flaky kind. But don’t go sticking anything in your friends’ ears to figure out what kind of earwax they have It’s not a good idea to stick anything in your ears, or anyone else’s ears, because you could hurt them.

All types of earwax are incredible ear protectors. For such a simple thing, earwax does a lot of hard work! Thanks for joining us!

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