Ear candling

[Naomi]

Have you ever heard of this? It's an alternative therapy that involves using the heat from candles to draw impurities out of the ear canal (I think). I don't know if it works. I don't know much about it at all.

My father is a 'redneck' (and I use that term with the greatest of affection) - he lives in rural NSW, works on properties, goes pig hunting (or used to) ... not your run-of-the-mill alternative therapy kind of guy. But it turns out he has ear candling done regularly to help with his tinitus. (He says it helps).

Last night on the phone he was telling me about it and I kept getting mental images of my common-sense, "none of that hippy stuff for me" father, having his ears candled and talking to the therapist about auras etc ... I had to keep swallowing my laughter because it was just such a funny image.

Personally I don't think I could do it, though. The idea of a lit candle that close to my ears just isn't a comfortable thought for me.

[Leigh]

I am not much into alternative therapies, but are whiling to try them.

We have used ear candles on Jake quite a few times. He suffers from bad glue ear (still!) and while waiting to have new grommets inserted we tried these out. They aren't a miracle cure, but they did give him some relief when used regularly for the few months he had to wait.

I was so scared the first time, that I was going to burn him, and the house LOL. But they aren't too bad.

[mel35]

We bought them once, hubby used them but I had horrible visions of hot wax dripping into hubby's ear and causing permanent damage. They worked well but haven't bought them since coz it was too stressful for me :blush: .