Stop using Q-Tips to Clean your Ears
It’s really tempting to use Q-tips to clean the wax from your ears or remove the water after a shower, but a number of studies have concluded that doing this isn’t beneficial to your health in any way.
There are no positive outcomes of shoving a Q-tip into your ear while looking for wax and other things that might make you feel accomplished to find. Your ears don’t need cleaning to be healthy. In fact, Q-tips have been labeled by doctors as “weapons of ear destruction” due to the damage they can do to your ears.
Q-tips can push soft wax deep into the ear canal and create a plug against the eardrum and disrupt the natural protective coating on the eardrum. This will prevent the eardrum from moving properly and can easily cause significant hearing loss. Sometimes water can become trapped behind this condensed wax wall and you will hear a continuous sloshing sound. When this happens, you’ll need to go to a doctor – don’t stick more things in your ear hoping to solve the problem yourself!
If you are an everyday Q-tip user, you are creating dryness in your ears. The wax in your ears is there for your health. It’s a self-cleaning substance that protects your inner ears from bacteria and dirt. To prevent ear infections, give your ears time to work the wax out naturally and remove it when it becomes visible to you outside the ear.
In addition, if you take away the moisture and wax you will experience itchy ears that can only be satisfied with more Q-tip use. This will cause you to damage the skin in your ear, making it a wonderful place for bacteria and fungus to grow.
For those of you who like to swim, you probably experience problems with water in your ears and resort to Q-tips to solve those problems. This is not a good idea because the water that you fish out with Q-tips or napkin corners also carries the protective wax in your ears out with it. Try wearing wax earplugs that mold to cover your ear opening when swimming.
Even though earwax isn’t attractive it is important to your health and should be left as is. Only use Q-tips externally when the wax makes its way to your ear opening. If the water in your ears is the problem, try to avoid soaking up the water with Q-tips and let it run out naturally.
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