If you are one of the many people who most often use Q-tips to clean their ears, this ear wax removal Q-tips review will give you a better insight of all the safety aspects and how effective they actually are. You might be surprised! Generally speaking, the ear canal is self-cleaning. Cerumen, which protects the ear from bacteria, fungi, insects, and water, is removed with the skin in your ear canal that naturally grows in an outward, spiral pattern. As it sloughs off, ear wax goes with it. Yet, for some people, ear wax accumulates much faster than for others. This can lead to wax build-up that causes temporary hearing loss, ringing or buzzing in the ear and in some instances, earaches. As an easy way to avoid spending countless minutes in a doctor’s waiting room, many folks resort to using swabs to remove the excess wax. However, using a cotton swab instead of seeing a medical professional may do more harm than good.
Affordability Of Q-Tips
Q tips are one of the most inexpensive household items to buy. Prices and availability may vary between stores and online.You can usually find a pack of 500 Q tips made of 100 % cotton for less than $4 .
Uses of Q-tips
Q-tips are one of the only major consumer products whose main purpose is precisely the one the manufacturer explicitly warns against. When they were invented in the 1920s, at first they were promoted as being useful for cleaning out earwax. However, the medical community didn’t agree, so a warning was added later about using them in the ears. And, for years, every box of Q-tips has carried an explicit caution —”Do not insert inside the ear canal.” The marketing expanded to ‘all purpose’ as household staples, using the cotton swabs for applying makeup, for manicures, first aid, babies and pets, cleaning small areas you cannot normally reach, art projects or something like that.
Safety
Q-tips are not safe for cleaning your ears at all. The worst thing you can do is to pierce the eardrum with the end of the Q-tip. Because the eardrum is so delicate, it can be easily ruptured by using even the gentlest of pressure. The pain is quite severe and can take weeks or months to heal; it sometimes requires surgery to correct and can even lead to hearing loss. Moreover, attempts to remove cerumen with Q-tips may result in ear wax impaction, a buildup or blockage of ear wax in the ear canal. This can cause pain, hearing problems, ringing or buzzing in the ear, dizziness, and may require medical treatment. The skin inside your ear canal is also very sensitive, so scraping around in there with a Q-tip can scratch it, and leave you open to ear infections. If an infection gets really bad you can get swimmer’s ear, which is when the skin swells up so much that it completely closes the ear canal. It’s also really painful.
Effectiveness
Even if our ears were supposed to be cleaned, the truth is that Q-tips would still be an awful thing to use. The most fundamental problem is that using a Q-tip is probably doing the opposite of what it’s expected to do. Your intention is to get earwax out, but you’re probably just compacting it deeper in there. The size, shape and texture of Q-tips is such that inserting them into your ears tends to push wax inward, toward your ear drum, rather than taking it out. This can plug up your ear canal and make you feel stuffy or itchy, or can reduce with your hearing ability. If the ear canal is completely blocked with wax you can get tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ear.
How to Use
Since no matter what you read or hear about Q-tips, you’re going to continue cleaning your ears with them, here is how to do it without massacring yourself: For one thing, be gentle. That soft cotton tip can leave grooves and scratches in the fragile skin. Another thing is, if used to clean ears, Q-tips should only be used gently around the outer surface of the ear. Cerumen is produced only in the outer third of the ear canal, so the best thing to do is not to put the swab in so far that you can’t see the cotton anymore. The eardrum is only about 2 to 3 cm in from the opening of the ear canal. Conveniently, the cotton head on a Q-tip is about 1 cm long, so stopping there ought to keep you relatively safe. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you are supposed to clean your ears this way. You should probably just leave them be, and consult a specialist if the wax situation is getting out of control. But if you are going to practice aural penetration, these tips will help you be safe.
Summary
In spite of the fact that doctors have said for years that usage of Q-tips for ear cleaning or scratching is not safe, such use remains the most common. It is particularly difficult to change how people perceive Q-tips because they are such a historic brand. They’re trying to change how people think of the product, to build a brand that is different from the original and inappropriate use, but that is really hard when everyone knows a product and thinks about it in a certain way.
So how should you deal with your ear wax? In most cases, the ear canal does not need to be cleaned. For those that are experiencing heavy wax build-up, a trip to the doctor may be needed. Your medical care professional will give you instructions on how to safely clean your ears. You should never stick anything into your ear canal, as this could further impact the wax or damage the eardrum. Keep in mind that the use of Q-tips in the ear canal is associated with no health benefits and poses definite medical risks. From punctured eardrums to super impacted wax, there are numerous negative consequences that will only make your ear wax problem more serious.
- Q Tips
