Hearing Loss from Concerts? The Truth Revealed | Dr. Emily Taylor DSH #722

Depends on the earwax.

I will tell you, most people will never need a professional ear cleaning in their whole life.

We do not all make a lot of earwax.

And if we leave it alone, like do nothing to our ears, the ear actually tries to self-clean.

When you see people using Q-tips or buying these products online, like that is dangerous and actually causing more of a problem.

So I think knowledge is power in this case.

So I think every home should have that ear camera.

All right, guys, we got Emily Taylor here, Dr.

Earwax.

Hey, we're going to talk earwax today, aren't we?

We're talking earwax.

We're getting into it.

You brought a candle here.

I brought an ear candle because every day people are asking me about these ear candles and they do not work.

So we are going to debunk this live.

So what's the theory behind this candle?

The theory behind it is that, I mean, I guess it's like a holistic approach to ear cleaning, and you basically light this candle while one end is in your ear.

What?

It sounds really safe, right?

Like big fire next to the head.

And then the thought is that it gets hot enough that it actually will suction out wax.

Some people believe it pulls out things beyond the eardrum, which doesn't even make sense medically.

But no, it does not work.

It is not safe.

It is a waste of money and it's dangerous.

So I thought we could light this guy on fire and then we'll come back to it in a few and we can actually like open it up and show you that.

I'll show you what's inside.

Yeah, let's do it.

Let's light them up.

Let's light a fire in the the office.

Busting this out here.

So, what would the proper way be to remove earwax then if these don't work?

So, the proper way to remove earwax, look at that, that's beautiful.

So, it depends on the earwax.

I will tell you, most people will never need a professional ear cleaning in their whole life.

We do not all make a lot of earwax.

And if we leave it alone, like do nothing to our ears, the ear actually tries to self-clean.

So, when you see people using q-tips or buying these products online, like that is dangerous and actually causing more of a problem.

I can look in someone's ear and be like, you are q-tipping.

You're shoving wax down in your ear and making it really hard for me to get out.

So, my first tip is: do nothing.

Less is more.

I highly recommend everybody own an ear camera at home.

I'm actually coming out with my own so that it's safe and effective.

I just think people should know what's going on in there.

Like, if I asked you, like, what's inside of your ears right now, would you be able to tell me?

I'd have no idea.

Right.

It's like a dark cave on the side of your head.

So I think knowledge is power in this case.

So I think every home should have that ear camera.

And then if there actually is an issue, I say see a professional like an audiologist like myself or an ear, nose, and throat physician.

So when you have a bunch of earbox, does that affect your hearing abilities?

It can totally affect your hearing abilities.

Luckily, it's just temporary though.

So once we get it out, it's like a huge, like, wow moment for the patient.

But yeah, temporary hearing loss.

It can cause ringing in the ear temporarily, pain, of course.

It's so sensitive near the eardrum.

So, yeah.

Wow.

What's the most earwax you've had to remove from someone?

Oh, I've had some good ones.

Like this guy, I was shocked.

He, he like warned me ahead of time and I was like, there's no way.

And we looked in, it had to have been five years worth of earwax.

And he's in the music industry.

So he was like, wow, I've been kind of using this as hearing protection all along because it was blocking out like 30 decibels of sound for him, but it was like a full ear canal.

It was wild.

I have a good video of that.

Yeah.

How damaging are concerts on the ears?

So damaging.

Like an average concert.

I have a decibel meter on my phone because I'm like a huge loser, but everybody should have one.

It's so fun.

But the average concert is well over 100 decibels and you can only safely be in 100 decibels for like five to ten minutes.

So five to ten minutes.

Without causing some.

potential hearing loss.

And those concerts last hours.

Hours.

So people are getting permanent hearing loss from going to one concert.

You can, for sure.

Yeah.

Definitely ringing in the ears is a number one side effect as well.

And I used to buy like front row at some of these.

Which is the way to do it.

I mean, get close, but wear hearing protection.

I have

like I'm obsessed with custom hearing protection.

I think people always assume that by wearing plugs in your ears, like why would you wear plugs?

You're going to miss the music.

But if it's the right kind of plug, which means like look for one that says concert plug on it, the music actually sounds better because it's bringing it a little softer and you're hearing everything properly, where those foam plugs, they're just blocking some stuff out.

So like the music doesn't sound good with those.

So I highly recommend like going online, typing in concert plug, checking out reviews.

Loop is a cool brand, eargasm.

And then you could see an audiologist for custom ones as well.

Eargasm, what a name.

I know, right?

I used to go to sporting events.

My ears would be ringing afterwards.

So that's what, what does that mean when your ears are ringing like that?

That's the damage from the noise.

You are hearing those hair cells in your inner ear screaming at you.

And it can last hours, it can last days, or it could last forever.

I feel so silly to be an audiologist who has tinnitus 24-7 from noise exposure from high school, you know, going.

I do.

Wow.

I know.

And it's worse when you're tired and when you're stressed and like, that's life.

So it can be pretty loud.

I'd be curious to test my hearing age because I think it's terrible.

Your hearing's probably okay, but you can see like early signs of it when we do certain tests in the office.

Okay.

What does a test look like?

So, I mean, we do a whole bunch, but we always start with with looking in the ears.

That's my favorite part.

I mean, I'm very enthusiastic about the ear cleaning part, but we do tympanometry.

We're checking how the eardrum's moving.

We do otoacoustic emission testing.

It's measuring the hair cell activity in the inner ears.

And then kind of that part that you just like recognize as like a quid essential hearing test, like raise your hand for the beeps.

And then we do speech testing and background noise, which is really interesting.

I have a lot of patients come in with ADD.

I mean, they're not like telling me that, but they feel like they have hearing loss.

And it's really, I think, an underlying like ADHD situation.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

Is there a way to fix hearing loss?

Yeah.

It depends on the type of hearing loss, conductive or mixed hearing loss.

There's sometimes surgery or medication for it, where if there is sensory neural, which is permanent, hearing aids can be.

insanely amazing nowadays.

They are Bluetooth.

They are rechargeable.

They do so well in background noise.

So yeah, hearing aids are like hot right now.

I don't want to get them because it's a sign that you're old.

You can't see them.

So it's so funny.

Like you absolutely cannot see anything in your ears.

So people come in.

They're like, I want to like look hot.

I'm like, I love that you like want to still look hot at 70.

I love that for you.

But like, nobody's going to see these.

And you look older saying, hot and what?

You know?

Yeah.

Like, you want to be like quick in your conversation.

You don't want to be like laughing at the wrong things.

That's cool.

They designed them to be sleek now because before you could see them and it was, you know.

They were, I mean, yeah, they were huge.

They weren't that effective.

And like, think about glasses.

Like, people used to get made fun of for glasses and now like everybody wants glasses.

So I, I see it moving that way with hearing aids.

Yeah, I remember getting my first pair.

I was like, this is nerdy and stuff.

Oh, how old were you?

I was in high school, I believe.

Okay.

But yeah, now they're definitely like a look.

It is.

I mean, you accessorize with them.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, you brought a bunch of stuff here.

Should we do the candling first or do this?

The candle's almost out.

So, look, that flame is getting closer and closer to the side of your head.

God forbid you've got a lot of hair like yours.

It could light your head on fire.

But once it reaches that silver part, then it should kind of put itself out and then we can open it up.

So we're getting close.

Some other stuff I brought today, I have a video otoscope.

So this is similar to the one that's going to be in my ear cleaning kit.

So I want to show you the inside of your ears if you're up for it.

And then I brought the irrigator.

It's my favorite ear cleaning machine.

I love the name.

It like literally is so comfortable.

People used to get dizzy all the time from irrigation systems.

This one keeps it nice and warm.

Wow.

It's my favorite tool in the office.

The water's heating up right now.

The water is heating up.

It's body temperature water so that it prevents dizziness.

A lot of people get dizzy if it's too hot or too cold.

So if you are trying to flush your ears out at home, you want to make sure it's like lukewarm water.

I also

looked up, you're not supposed to use tap water when you're flushing your ears.

Is that true?

I mean, probably.

I'm not going to.

Someone got an ear infection and it went viral.

I would say.

you can use distilled, but yeah, if you're being super safe, I don't, I don't think it's not a big deal.

It's not a big deal.

Yeah.

All right.

so that's almost out.

If you want me to open it up, yeah, let's see what's in that guy.

I guess we should let it totally go out so we don't burn ourselves.

I hope you're not sponsored by this.

No,

dang, this is gonna go off.

This is like by your head.

Holy crap.

All right, we're saging.

For real.

Okay, sorry.

Are you're good.

I don't want to touch it.

Yet.

I guess we could douse it with water.

Douse some ear if you need any.

Maybe.

I don't know.

That sounds messy.

Alright, well we're opening it.

This is the close-up shot we need.

You ready?

Yeah.

So look inside.

Doesn't that look, I mean, I don't know if you know what earwax looks like, but that's what people are like.

Look what came out of my ear, that huge chunk of earwax.

Yeah.

That's just part of the candle.

So literally, it's done nothing.

Wow.

It's just dangerous.

So we have debunked that here, and I hope people just learn from that.

But, you know, you just both out of business.

Well done.

You would think, but you've met people.

Well, people are about this holistic lifestyle, so they are.

I love it, but don't light a fire by your head.

All right, I'm going to come over and look in your ears.

Is that cool?

Oh my gosh, let's do it.

I love it.

See what's in there.

Let's get excited.

It's been years since I've had had them cleaned.

Oh, yeah?

Probably two years.

So you have had them cleaned before?

I had to.

Okay.

It was.

I'm walking over to you.

Yeah, the guy was, I don't know if it was a doctor or a nurse, but they were very shocked.

Okay, you ready for this?

Yeah.

So this is why I love an ear camera.

Let's like look into this cape on the side of your head.

So you'll see just a little bit of wax right there.

Dang, that's gross.

But you can see your eardrum back there, but look, all that right there.

But wait, let's see what the other side brings.

And I always find for the most part, oh, will you turn that that way?

This way?

Let me put it this way.

There we go.

Alright, let's see what we got over here.

And if you have a lot of wax, I think I gotta get it out for you today if you're cool with that.

Definitely want it out.

Oh my god, that's disgusting.

Look at that.

Which like,

don't be upset about wax.

We produce it on purpose, but if you couldn't see past it right now, that would mean that it's probably causing a bit of hearing loss because we need air to get back there.

Wow.

All right.

Should we do it?

Yeah.

All right.

All right.

So I always like to put a cape on.

I brought this one all the way from Baltimore, Maryland.

Wow, I'm honored.

Yeah, so I have my own practice in Baltimore.

Here we go.

Do you need a haircut as well?

I brought it.

All right, so I want to do the other side of that.

Cool.

And this machine, like literally, people come to my office super traumatized from past ear cleaning.

And then we do this and they like, people have cried happy tears.

I'm not expecting tears from you, but we'll see.

Alright, so you're gonna hold this bucket under your ear.

Let me use this hand to it.

You good?

Yeah.

Okay, so

I'm gonna use this.

It's got a little nozzle on the end.

Alright, so let's get set up here.

So we're gonna hold it like that.

And then I always say keeping you comfortable the biggest priority.

So, just let me know how you're doing.

And then you'll feel just a little warm water coming in your ear.

This is a good close-up shot.

This is what we do on Instagram.

So, here comes the water.

How are you doing, ball?

Yeah, I feel it for sure.

Are you doing okay with it?

Yeah.

And then we ramp up the speed.

I think it's like ASMR too.

Listen to that sound.

Have you done something like this on your podcast before?

No.

It's the first.

I'm digging it.

All right.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

I just shot the side of your head.

But wow, I hope there's a close-up of what just came out.

That was insane.

You want to see what's in there?

Oh, my God.

Do you see that down there?

Yeah, that's crazy.

Made a little mess.

I'm sorry.

Don't release me.

Wow, I can hear so much better.

Doesn't that feel strange?

Dude, you don't even know what the issue was.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you for going through that.

And then if you want to pass me that back, I'll take a look back in.

Let's see.

Look.

All gone.

It's all gone.

That's your eardrum back there.

Wow.

That's what we're looking for.

Skull.

We couldn't see that before.

I love it.

Good as new.

All right, let's bring this guy back.

Thank you so much for that.

Of course.

Thanks for sitting through that.

Lily.

That's unreal hearing right now.

Isn't it?

That is crazy.

Yeah, I got so used to it.

Not being able to hear, I guess.

Yeah,

every day online, people are asking, like, do you know someone where I can go get my ears cleaned like you?

Because that's what I post videos of me cleaning earwax.

So I actually started something called the Clean Ear Club, where I'm getting other audiologists signed up so that specifically with the irrigator, because I do think it's important to have so other people can find.

earwax enthusiasts like me to go get their ears cleaned out.

I love it.

You get so many views on TikTok, right?

People, people like earwax.

People like pimple popping which i find very disgusting actually

i can't even watch it but yeah people tag me in gross videos i get to do commentary on them and then yeah shooting wax out of people's ears for fun someone also asked you if they could eat their earwax after you took it out oh my god yes it was wild it was a really cool case it was a lot of wax uh afterwards he asked if you could eat it and i was like well like as a medical professional i can't tell you to do that but if you do it i have to film it and then we kind of talked him out of doing it because I was, I was like gagging.

I think Instagram would not be cool with that.

Yeah, that's extreme.

Some people eat their bogers, though.

So maybe it's similar.

I don't know.

I never went through that phase.

You never went through that in middle school?

I didn't.

No.

Oh, people thought it was cool.

Middle school.

Yeah.

Maybe you're still schooling.

People are too old for that.

Yeah, yeah, maybe younger.

I think that's like elementary.

Yeah, my memory's probably off there, but no, I remember kids eating it.

Yeah, I never got on that wave, too.

People will play with it afterwards, which also is really gross.

Play with it.

Like they like smush it between their fingers.

And like, I know it's part of them.

Like I wouldn't do it.

But like, yeah, watching them play with it.

The guy the other day, his fiancé set up his appointment.

So he asked to take the wax home to show her.

So we package it up.

People have asked if they can buy the earwax too.

What?

I know.

Is there like an OnlyFans for that?

There might be.

People buy bathwater.

So maybe people.

I don't think I can sell bodily.

excretions from people.

Yeah, if you have like a celebrity client, maybe.

Oh.

Probably charge like a thousand bucks.

All right.

Let's go.

Yeah.

That changes changes things.

Let's go.

That's gross.

How often do you have to clean?

Like, like, how often am I doing that a day or something

on yourself or like for?

Oh, so you don't have to do that to yourself?

No, I mean, it feels good.

So, like, yes, you could have one of those and enjoy it.

But, like I said, like, the ear self-cleans.

So, the skin in the ear canal migrates outwards.

And yeah, so if you let it do its thing, it'll just push the wax out.

People are obsessed with using cotton swabs.

I have seen so many injuries from them.

Someone actually had permanent hearing loss from using one.

So, like, every time you go to pick up that q-tip, like, think about that and scare yourself out of using it.

That's why they were invented, though, right?

To clean ears?

No.

And if you look at the box, it specifically says not for the ear.

Oh, wow.

I know.

Nobody reads the fine print, though.

I wonder how that trend started then.

I mean, it is the perfect shape.

People say it feels good.

It hits a certain spot.

Yeah.

What other ear stories you got?

Any infections you've seen?

We've definitely seen infections.

We refer out for that sort of thing.

I am waiting for a bug, though.

Like, I'm like, I want to know how I would react, you know, because I got to keep my cool.

I got to stay professional.

And like, they better let me film that.

And I just want to make sure like I'm cool to do it and can like pull a cockroach out.

Like, people are pulling stuff out of their ears like that.

What?

I know.

A cockroach?

Like, there was a video that was like, you'll never sleep with your ears open again because like a bug went into someone's ear.

Oh, my God.

It's like new fear unlocked.

Like a spider.

That's scary.

Well, they say you eat

spiders, right?

Let's not talk about it.

You don't like spiders.

I'm going to assume that's not a thing.

You know what?

Now that I've got almost nine-year-old twins, you have to put on a brave face.

Like I'm the one that has to like deal with the bugs.

So like, no, I don't act scared anymore.

So I can handle a spider.

Do you kill them or let them go outside?

Let them go outside.

I know.

I'm the one that like gets sad if I drive by like a dead deer on the side of the road.

Yeah.

I don't know if you have that on out in Vegas, but Baltimore.

We have like, what do we have?

Coyotes, but they're not really dead on the street.

Yeah.

I grew up in Jersey though, so I used to see a lot of dead deer out there.

Yeah.

Everywhere.

I love them.

Some people hate them though.

But like one time.

I saw one online.

It was a dead deer on the side of the road and someone had put a get-well soon balloon on.

Oh my God.

That's ruthless.

It kind of made me laugh a little, but otherwise, yeah, no, I'm sad.

I let the bugs outside.

So you've never ate venison?

I do not.

No.

Any meat?

Are you vegetarian?

I was for a while, but no, if you're in Baltimore, you have to eat crabs.

Crabs.

I love crabs.

Have you like the real, like the steamed crab?

Yeah.

The Cajun style.

What does that mean?

Cajun crab.

I mean, we steam them.

We put obey on them and then you like pick them limb by limb.

It's like pretty vulgar.

Wow.

But delicious.

Yeah, I love crab.

I've never been to Baltimore.

It's your next stop.

What am I missing out there?

You're missing those crabs.

That's good boating.

We've got good boating out there.

I mean, we get a bad rep, but like the Orioles are so hot hot right now.

So, yeah, you come to a baseball game, you know, enjoy your day on the water.

Okay, I'll check it out eventually.

Eventually, I wouldn't say it's like on my radar, but that's fair.

I do want to travel to every major city.

Okay, we'll get you one day.

Yeah, were you born and raised there?

Yeah, okay.

Born and raised in Baltimore.

And you always wanted to do this.

Always wanted to be an audiologist.

I was pre-farm.

I knew I wanted the medical field.

I knew I wanted to be in like a helping position.

So pre-farm was boring.

And I'm so glad I dodged that because, like, you stand behind a counter and like you don't even talk to people.

So audiology, a friend's mom actually knew an audiologist.

He let me come shadow him for a while.

And yeah, the passion was born.

I love it.

Nice.

Yeah.

I know a few pharmacists may have left the space.

Yeah.

They, I mean, they're getting bombarded with all this extra stuff.

I mean, now they're trying to sell hearing aids in a pharmacy, like a thousand dollar hearing aids

in a pharmacy.

And like the pharmacists, they don't have time to like answer the questions.

It's a lot of work.

Yeah.

So you never seem happy when you're picking picking up your prescription never happy i mean i've been an upset person on the other side of the wall you know yeah but yeah patience is key in life yeah i'm sure you deal with some some interesting patients i love it like the more challenging the better and i'm at a lucky spot i opened my own practice right out of school so i was

like a young stupid age of 23 and i'm like let's open a practice and um we're at the point now where like if someone is treating us poorly we can ask them to leave the practice oh yeah that feels good Everyone signs a waiver when they come into the practice, just saying, like, if you use sexual language, like people say some pretty amazing things.

So, yeah, they sign a thing saying we can kick them out if they do that.

Wow.

Feels good.

That does feel good, I bet.

Does insurance cover this type of stuff?

So, yes, insurance will cover an annual hearing test.

Obviously, deductible applies.

Health insurance, I hate it in this country.

It's just a business.

I hate that they have like a say in our healthcare.

They'll cover hearing tests.

They'll cover ear cleanings cleanings if it's with an ENT.

It's a surgical code that most audiologists can't use.

So we charge out a pocket for that and people are super happy to pay it.

I love that.

I know, $165 a cleaning sesh.

I mean, it's probably worth it.

I feel amazing right now for $165.

I'm glad you sat through that and enjoyed it.

Yeah.

It brings me such happiness.

I'll do it every few years if I can hear better.

You'll come out to Baltimore.

We'll have crabs and ear cleaning.

We'll hit up some crabs, hit up some ear cleaning.

That's an odd visit.

Yeah.

Sounds like an interesting day.

Sure.

What's next for you?

Do you want to scale the TikTok even more?

Yeah.

So I love the social media aspect.

That's really like my outlet artistically.

So I love that.

Like I said, I'm working on my own ear cleaning kit.

I've started a waitlist for that at thecleanearclub.com.

That's, I think, what I'm really excited about next because people every day asking, how can I safely clean at home?

So I'm giving them the solution to that.

Nice.

Yeah.

So what will be in that kit?

Yeah.

So in the kit is going to be a camera.

All those cameras you see online right now have like these pointy tools with them.

And I do not think that is appropriate to have in a box.

You can hurt yourself with it.

So it'll just have a speculum like the tip on the one that you had.

So it'll have a camera.

It'll have drops.

So if you do have wax, it will soften the wax.

And then it'll have an irrigation system of some sort.

So either like a syringe or one of those machines you see that.

puts the water in there.

I love that.

Yeah.

And then with the camera, you can look beforehand to know if you need to do it.

And then after if it actually worked.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

You got any competition?

Like in the earwax space.

Yeah.

I actually, I love, like, I don't want to say I love, I mean, I do.

I like competition.

I don't look at it like that.

Like, I think there's a lot of space for everyone out there.

So I do mentor other audiologists online and try to help them like grow their pages.

So I don't, I don't really look at it like that.

I feel that.

I get a lot of those chiropractor videos.

Okay.

Do you get those?

There was a chiropractor one that someone sent me that was supposed to help with tinnitus.

Oh, really?

Cracking your ears?

Yeah.

It was,

I don't even want to talk about it.

I don't, I don't promote it.

I don't think it's legit.

Yeah, but that they like

oh my that sounds painful.

It looked painful.

Yeah, I

like back and neck, but and maybe hand.

I can't listen to that cracking sound.

You don't crack your own knuckles?

No.

Like if I'm getting my nails done and they try to crack them, I'm like resisting.

Dude, it feels amazing.

Oh, and when people like make the sound or like do the neck thing, dead.

The neck thing is great.

I'm dead.

I can't hear it.

So you have a fear of cracked bones.

I guess so.

Don't do it.

Resist.

Have you ever cracked yourself?

I've been to a chiropractor and I couldn't do it.

I couldn't like sit.

Oh, wow.

You have to sit.

You got too tense.

Dislocate your head from yourself.

No, I think I'm going to die if I get it done.

Some of them are a little extreme.

A little extreme.

Like one guy cracked my neck and he looked a little worried.

So I was like, yeah, I'm not coming back here.

Were you worried?

A little bit.

When I saw his face, I was like, what the fuck?

Like, he went pretty far.

You know?

Did it hurt or it felt so good?

Both, you know?

I I mean, my head was like 90 degrees.

Oh, ooh.

Yeah, so.

No, I don't like it.

There's too much like important stuff happening.

Yeah, I feel like the risk to reward with certain chiropractor things isn't there.

It's not there.

Yeah.

No.

There's been some paralysis cases.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, my friend works in the ER.

He said he would see one a week in Vegas.

Are you serious from a chiropractor?

Yeah, it's pretty common because if you cheap out on those, I mean, it's like.

cheaping out on LASEC.

It's kind of risky.

That's so scary.

Yeah.

God.

I would do a whole podcast on that.

I know, right?

I'm going to have to get him on.

But, Emily, it's been fun.

Anything else you want to promote here?

I just really love when people our age are wearing hearing protection to concerts.

I'm a huge EDM fan.

And there was a CDC.

I know.

I saw marshmallow yesterday, Geta the day before.

So I love the scene, but nobody's wearing hearing protection.

So I actually went around a festival carrying a sign that said, show me your hearing protection and I'll pay you.

Wow.

Yeah.

I walked around.

It was just a dollar, but people were really excited.

So yeah, but I'd say like

one-tenth of people maybe were wearing hearing protection.

So, it's like, let's do a small thing and just protect our hearing.

Yeah, you got to penetrate that market.

Start bringing like 200 of your hearing aids there.

Oh, God, I would love that.

Like, let's be smart.

Nobody's talking about it in like in health, like health class, how we can only have one shot at hearing, so we might as well protect it.

Absolutely.

Emily, it's been fun.

Thanks for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

Thanks for being brave.

Absolutely.

Thanks for watching, guys.

As always, if you need your ears cleaned and you're in the Baltimore area, hit up Emily.

Thanks for coming on.

Thanks for watching, guys.

See you tomorrow.