Scrub Behind Your Ears

You know how older books from our parents' or grandparents' generation talked about mothers making sure their kids washed behind their ears? Before I entered the marvelous world of audiology, I never understood what the big deal about scrubbing behind the ears was. I mean, doesn't that part of your body get cleaned when you shampoo your hair? Apparently, for some people, that just isn't enough.

I didn't realize how much flaky, icky, gunk could be behind the ears and in the folds of the ears. People who appear to have relatively good hygiene sometimes have really yucky ears. Then there are those people who just don't seem to have grasped the concept of hygiene for any part of their body. Yesterday I saw one such individual. To make matters worse, the inside of his ear was like a swamp, and he had something yellow growing in it. As my boss likes to say, he was one of those patients who makes you feel like you need to take a shower to clean up after seeing him.

So when you get old and have to come see me, do me a favor and scrub behind your ears. Don't assume that shampooing your hair takes care of it. Just because I'm pretending to be professional and completely cool with grimy, vegetative ears doesn't mean I'm not secretly completely grossed out.