Sure, using Q-tips feels great; until someone bumps your arm and you spend the next few hours -and several hundred dollars getting the white, fuzzy danger-stick professionally removed from inside of your eardrum. The pain and risks of using a cotton swab greatly outweigh the benefits, but if you have ever used a Q-tip, you know how wonderful it feels.
This delightful sensation is caused by stimulating the large amount of nerves found in, and around your ear. When the nerves are activated by, say, a soft cotton swab, it feels great. Overstimulate them with a jab to the ear drum and watch out.
Although the box says not to, the most common use for Q-tips is to clean your ears. If you are this person…STOP IT! Wax is meant to be left in there. It acts as a protective coating for the sensitive skin in your ear canal.
Shoving a Q-tip into your ear can pack wax or other debris deep into your ear canal, causing pain or hearing loss. Q-tips can also remove the wax from your ear, making you susceptible to a bacterial or fungal invasion. Hello swimmer’s ear!
If you feel you have excessive amounts of ear wax and it’s affecting your hearing, talk with us. We can examine your ear canal with a lighted instrument called an otoscope and remove problematic ear wax using ear drops, water irrigation, a suctioning device, or other instruments.
If you want to live dangerously, go ahead. But keep this picture in mind next time you reach for those weapons of ear destruction.
