The ugly: Hydrogen peroxide ear wax cleanse
TikTok user Ayisha Friedman-Negrin (@ayishafrita) got a whopping 2.7 million likes on her video where she puts hydrogen peroxide in her ear (yes, 2.7 million likes). This home remedy, she says, dissolves earwax that is stuck together. She lays her head on one side and waits for the hydrogen peroxide to “sizzle.” It bubbles like a hot spring before yellow-tinged liquid drips out. Yuck.
She isn’t totally wrong – hydrogen peroxide has been used for years to irrigate ears and help soften earwax. But there’s a lot of important information that people replicating this trend on TikTok tend to leave out of their videos. Thankfully, Sina Joorabchi, MD, is here to make sure TikTokers (and the rest of us) aren’t damaging their ears.
Dr. Joorabchi is a board-certified ear, nose, and throat doctor with his own TikTok account (@doctor.sina). He recommends in his video that if hydrogen peroxide is a patient’s go-to ear cleaner, it’s best to stick with one that’s of a 3% hydrogen peroxide concentration, as anything more can damage ears. Additionally, in the original video, Ms. Friedman-Negrin uses too much liquid, and 5 drops a day should work just fine for helping soften earwax.
“Definitely do not attempt [this] if you have an ear infection or history of ear perforation,” Dr. Joorabchi says. “And you don’t want to be using peroxide for an extended period of time. That can cause a lot of ear itching.”
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.