476 - Long Sheet of Crusted Dead Skin Removed using the WAXscope®

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]Hi everyone, this is Neil Raithatha, consultant audiologist and director of Clearwax. Thank you for joining me in my latest video using the wax cap and this is our size one specula, the new teardrop design. Uh this patient attends annually and they not only have this including wax but this sheet of dead skin keratin which lines the entire posterior ear canal wall and also the eardrum.

[00:00:28]And I've taken a still image of it.

[00:00:29]You've probably seen it if you've been following me um for a while you've probably seen the image of this kind of feather. It's the best way I can describe it. It looks like a feather of dead skin and it's a really long sheet.

[00:00:41]So initially just this is a bit of skin here then you'll see this is a clear illustration of the difference between skin and wax. You can you can see the difference.

[00:00:52]Where I'm searching now it may look like wax but it's actually dead skin and then afterwards you'll see a plug of wax once I remove this.

[00:01:00]Now of course earwax consists of dead skin cells uh corneocytes and also sebum which is an oily lipid secretion and a lipid and protein rich um sweat produced by ceruminous glands.

[00:01:19]So this is now wax what you're seeing here, this plug.

[00:01:23]And I've just put some oil in just to lubricate it. So it was blocking the tube, quite sticky. There's going to be some residual um wax stain I'll call it staining the canal wall because of the consistency. I did hover over but wasn't coming away. So we just left that. I don't want to graze the canal wall.

[00:01:39]This plug is a bit deep. I'm trying to get it from here so I can get a better suction grip and I'm just maneuvering it outwards.

[00:01:49]So the wax plug isn't clear. That's the eardrum. You can't I'm going to get it in focus. You can't really see the full features, the landmarks of the eardrum.

[00:01:57]Because here is the it's the beginning of that feather skin and what I'm doing I'm peeling it off the canal wall.

[00:02:07]I'm bringing it into the midline and then I'm going to use some forceps to grab onto and gently peel away. And the oil has helped lubricate the skin and the against the canal wall.

[00:02:17]So I'm just lifting the skin off from the bottom.

[00:02:21]Now if I continue to suction it may have come away but I'll be quite rigorous so I'm just getting it in the prime position so I can get the forceps either side which I have.

[00:02:31]So we're going to go back in. You can see there's loads of space either side.

[00:02:35]Going to grab onto. I'm going to peel from right to left and then out. And you'll see you know again you'll see a still image in a moment.

[00:02:44]Quite a bendy ear canal and you can see where the skin has detached itself from the eardrum but the eardrum is fully visible now. You can see all the landmarks.

[00:02:52]Just some residual sticky skin at the base. I'm just going to hover over.

[00:02:58]We don't want to graze the canal wall.

[00:03:01]I've had quite a few of these consistencies of wax in the last few days and I suspect because of the temperature's warmed up in the UK.

[00:03:08]Um it the wax is full of lipids, cholesterol, squalenes.

[00:03:12]Um and with heat it can change consistency. You can see we've got the bulk of it away.

[00:03:21]So I'm just having a look at the eardrum. There's a second bend there to the left. There's a bit of staining there. We're just going to leave that but it's a very tight bend. Just going to get the eardrum into focus. I'm just going to go back in again to kind of straighten the ear canal a bit more so we can see more of the anterior the front up section of the eardrum.

[00:03:38]All looks good and in a moment you will see the sheet of the feather of dead skin.

[00:03:45]It looked more like a feather last time but hopefully it resembles it. Hopefully take care guys. Bye.