# Re: Ear candling **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 4, 2011, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-ear-candling/601834 "2011-11-04T10:36:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-ear-candling/601834/21 "2012-07-11T18:17:33Z")
Rule 34. It took a lot of therapy but I can now enjoy Calvin and Hobbes again. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-ear-candling/601834/22 "2012-07-11T19:41:40Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > 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? Because the ear drops don’t cleanse your chi and draw all the toxins from throughout your skull and give you a sense of oneness with the universe. They just, you know, clean your ears. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > But look how [happy](http://contemplans.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/ear-candling.jpg) [ear candling](https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTeKum_X0dgIImqeZQLly0J582o7r-ng6nZnl8wqBam8VfjZkl6tA) [makes](https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSITt1wAGHJTv0kipSgShd-ZCWxPWQmzfr4dGIDVrKRc1L2jgkTsg) [you](https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4UdJ11_MypIStYZ9964Cz1bQCb0T86Ma0nKGZG2I6xbLheqhs) Don’t tell me you can get that level of satisfaction from drops! What I observe in all of those pictures? Every one of those people have devised some sort of shield to prevent wax from dripping down the candle exterior into the ear. One uses alumium foil, one a paper plate, one a hand towel. Sure puts the lie to “wax never drips down an ear candle”. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-ear-candling/601834/23 "2012-07-11T19:44:27Z")
I’m shocked that momsaid posted an untruth. Shocked, I tell you. ---
**Author:** ![PaterDeus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@PaterDeus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaterDeus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-ear-candling/601834/24 "2012-07-11T19:52:27Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > 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.** Techincally… aren’t they trying to \*rekindle \*older conventions and practices? teehee. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-ear-candling/601834/25 "2012-07-11T19:53:32Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Looks like **momsaid** hasn’t been back since her first, huffy post last year. Maybe she can’t hear us? Hah? What’s that? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-ear-candling/601834/26 "2012-07-11T23:18:13Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Did you Google “happy ear candlers” to find all of those, or maybe “grinning morons”? That highlights the sole value of ear candling - as an I.Q. test. If you practice it, you’re too stupid to make health decisions. > [@Musicat](#): > > There is a common mind-set that believes: > The ancients knew more than we do now They _did_ know more…about how to die prematurely. **Musicat** ’s list is a good one. I’d add one crucial pillar of woo: _They_ Don’t Want You To Know (about fabulous cheap, safe, effective cures for disease). You see, They and Their loved ones never get sick, or else They’re going to Secret Clinics for cures not available to the rest of us, or They are suicidal sociopaths who don’t care whether They and their families die, as long as They’re raking in that filthy lucre.\* \*I don’t know how much your family doctor charges for having a staffer irrigate your ears during an office visit to clean out wax, but it can’t be a whole lot more expensive than ear candling, when you figure in the latter procedure’s ineffectiveness plus the cost of treating occasional burns and maybe buying a hearing aid to compensate for eardrum damage from melted wax. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-ear-candling/601834.md?page=1)