The brown color of earwax may be caused by physiological factors or cerumen embolism.
1. Physiological factors: there are ceruminous glands in the cartilaginous skin of the external auditory canal, which can secrete cerumen. In most healthy people, cerumen is dry, flaky, and yellow or brown in color, which can be dislodged outwardly with the change of the head position or the movement of the jaw joint.
2. Cerumen embolism of external auditory canal: due to dust and dirt and other debris entering the external ear, various stimuli leading to excessive cerumen secretion, scarring of the external auditory canal, deformity, stenosis, tumors and so on preventing the cerumen from discharging outward, oily cerumen, deterioration of cerumen, or muscle relaxation in the elderly affecting the cerumen to be dislodged outward, all of them will lead to the cerumen in the external auditory canal congealing into lumps, blocking the external auditory canal and forming brownish-colored cerumen embolism.
Cerumen embolism can generally be removed with cerumen hooks, or softened with 5% sodium bicarbonate and then flushed out with warm saline, or suctioned out with suction devices.
Brown earwax can be diagnosed in the hospital and treated according to the doctor’s instructions.