In a piece here called “how do ear candles work?” the ‘expert’ uses condescending and silly tones in dismissing the empirical evidence provided by the letter-writer/advice seeker. Having used them on myself and others (including my children) and found the ears clear of wax afterward, I find the ‘expert’ lacking in wisdom and experience. Cecil Adams, look into a real person’s ears for yourself before and after this treatment and find out what actually happens. As for the otolaryngologist, Dr.C. Christopher Smith, the notion of treating burns from candle wax on the eardrum is specious as well as suspect. The wax melts and is literally ‘wicked up’ like a regular candle wick with the flame. I have NEVER witnessed wax dripping down an ear candle…it’s all drawn upwards. So, either the good doctor treated someone who used a birthday or taper candle, or he’s lying. Lastly, when I treated my husband the first time, upon removing the candle, there was earwax in the tip and in his ear. It was the same substance we’d removed with a Q-tip beforehand. Next time, I believe I’ll submit said evidences to a lab to establish the truth and efficacy of this procedure.
This creates a suction strong enough to actually move wax upwards? How does the eardrum survive?
I tried it once. All it did was burn my shirt and the toilet seat when I was frantically trying to throw the damn thing in the toilet water to put the fire out.
I probably did it wrong though. I’ll just stick to those drops you put in the ear and a warm water suction. At least I don’t risk burning my house down. :0)
He did. From the column:
Regular candles frequently drip wax down the side even while some amount is being wicked up and burned.
So you’re saying an earcandle is completely foolproof, and there’s no way ever that an inexperienced user who buys one in a holistic store and kinda sorta reads the instructions can manage to drip wax from the candle into his ear?
Please do.
I got into a disagreement with a friend over those things once. We did one candle in my ear and another in my closed fist. We later did a third one in a soda can. All three finished candles looked the same.
I made my very first post to this forum about it over ten years ago: Ear Candles - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board
So…as usual, what Mom said was wrong. 
Don’t you think that with all the claims that parallel yours, if test results came back that showed that what you claim is correct we would know about it?
momsaid, there’s a very simple way to prove that the wax found at the end of the procedure is not coming from your ears. Burn an ear candle in the same position and angle as per instructions, but nowhere near anyone’s ear. I believe you will find that wax drips from it just as well, and if you unwrap the paper before lighting it, you can see and feel the wax impregnated in the paper.
Please be careful, as this has the potential to severely damage your ears, and there is no possible benefit from it. If you are doing it for masochistic reasons, might I suggest setting your hair on fire instead?
Looks like momsaid hasn’t been back since her first, huffy post last year. Maybe she can’t hear us?
Why do people fool with stuff like this when the drops you can get at the drugstore work? Why risk burning yourself with some unproven treatment when a safe, inexpensive, and proven treatment works?
I think some people just want to buck convention just for the sake of bucking convention.
But look how happy ear candling makes you Don’t tell me you can get that level of satisfaction from drops!
Pretty much the same scenario for me. One in my ear, one in her’s followed by a “SEE IT WORKS!!!” then I said, let’s just burn one and and proclaimed “SEE, WHERE’D ALL THAT WAX COME FROM?” Followed by an “oh”. Luckily she was rational enough that that was all she needed to understand that they weren’t doing quite what they advertised.
Did you Google “happy ear candlers” to find all of those, or maybe “grinning morons”?
Just an image search for ear candling. There’s even a flickr photostream of people ear candling which only goes to show, if you can imagine it, someone has photographed it.
There is a common mind-set that believes:[ul][]The ancients knew more than we do now[]Modern medicine kills, but does not cure[]Modern medicine exists only to make money by defrauding patients[]Ancient medicine is being suppressed by modern proponents[]The government is actively prohibiting all beneficial chemicals and procedures, especially the cheap ones[]Our bodies are rebelling against modern diets, having evolved for hunter-gatherer cultures[]Everything “natural” works, anything “artificial” doesn’t[]Anything suggested by an uneducated, untrained “medical” practitioner, who is by nature pure and altruistic, is preferred over advice by doctors who would rather torture and kill their patients, since there is more money in it[/ul]There’s more, but you get the idea. Once you accept that mind-set, everything else follows.
So then there must be porn of ear candling…
Isn’t that one of the internet laws? I forget the number. “If it exists, there is porn of it.”