Do you use Q-Tips?

[redfaerythinker]

I''m so guilty of this. I''ve had reconstructive surgery in my right ear and so every couple of months it gets so clogged that I can''t hear. So I''ll go in all the way to the eardrum and clean them out. Now I would not advise this for most people but i''ve had so much work done on my ears over my lifetime that I know their anatomy extremely well. I also have special prescription drops that dissolve the wax.

 

[DivaDiamond007]

Date: 2/13/2010 3:16:21 PM
Author: Hudson_Hawk

Date: 2/13/2010 12:49:41 PM
Author: kenny
I use them but I''m careful to not push wax in.


I must admit, it feels good.

Very good.

Eyes rolling back good.


Seeing yucky stuff come out make you want to keep it clean even though I know nature wants it dirty.

Nature didn''t invent toilet paper either.

I agree! Isn''t it crazy how blissful it feels??

I agree too!

I use q-tips every day. I have to clean my ears out after showering or I can feel the water in there and it drives me nuts. Last year I went in too far and ruptured (?) my left eardrum. Hurt like heck, but yet I stll have to use the q-tips every day. It feels so good. My husband rarely uses them inside of his ears and I don''t know how he can stand it. We use the special baby ones for our son and do not put them into his ears, just around the outside where you can see the wax build up. A warm washcloth works too.

 

[Tuckins1]

Yes. I clean my ears daily. I know you aren''t supposed to, but I don''t care. It makes me feel clean.

 

[oobiecoo]

I absolutely use one everyday after I shower... sometimes twice a day if I shower twice. I had a HORRIBLE ear infection once from having water in my ear and so I''ve used them daily ever since then. Ear wax is gross and so are ear infections and I don''t want either.

 

[Laila619]

Nope. Don''t use them. But I don''t really get, er, buildup.

 

[waterlilly]

Sure, your body is designed to deal with earwax - but I would have 5 inch armpit hair, green teeth, a unibrow and a forest coming out of my nose if I let everything be as "nature designed it". How is cleaning any other part of your body OK, but not cleaning your ears? How many people do you know have ear problems from using q-tips?

 

[mia1181]

Date: 2/13/2010 10:46:20 PM
Author: waterlilly
Sure, your body is designed to deal with earwax - but I would have 5 inch armpit hair, green teeth, a unibrow and a forest coming out of my nose if I let everything be as ''nature designed it''. How is cleaning any other part of your body OK, but not cleaning your ears? How many people do you know have ear problems from using q-tips?

I was wondering the same thing. I don''t really see the harm. Sure there''s a slight chance you might go back too far, but what are the odds of that happening? I''d like to know.

I clean mine everyday, sometimes twice a day for years and no problems.

Does anyone else pour peroxide in your ears? Now that feels soooooo good! Love the tingling! I do it once every few months. I''m sure thats probably also frowned upon too, but I love the super clean feeling afterwards!

 

[kenny]

We live in a litigious society now.
Fear of being sued drives many companies to protect themselves.

Johnson and Johnson is not stupid.

 

[drk]

Never. My DH does, and I''m always on his case about it. I spent a month doing ENT during my internship year, and we saw plenty of people who had damaged their ear drums with Qtips, or who had such thick wax buildup from pushing it back in there with the Qtip and packing it solidly to the drum. Others had to come in to get pieces of Qtip cotton removed from their ears.
I was told to never put anything smaller than your little finger in your ear. So that''s all I ever use to clear the wax away from the exernal opening when it comes out. I think other people will put mineral oil drops into the canal to soften up the wax and help it come out.
My child will certainly never have a qtip in her ears once she''s born - DH will not win out on that one!

 

[LilyKat]

Date: 2/14/2010 3:05:49 PM
Author: drk
Never. My DH does, and I''m always on his case about it. I spent a month doing ENT during my internship year, and we saw plenty of people who had damaged their ear drums with Qtips, or who had such thick wax buildup from pushing it back in there with the Qtip and packing it solidly to the drum. Others had to come in to get pieces of Qtip cotton removed from their ears.

I was told to never put anything smaller than your little finger in your ear. So that''s all I ever use to clear the wax away from the exernal opening when it comes out. I think other people will put mineral oil drops into the canal to soften up the wax and help it come out.

My child will certainly never have a qtip in her ears once she''s born - DH will not win out on that one!

Ha, it seems the doctors are teaming up on this one! I''ve also seen nasty eardrum injuries from injudicious Q-tip (or cotton buds as they''re called here) application.

Interestingly, by putting Q-tips into the ear canal, you''re actually damaging the tiny hairs that normally clear out the wax build-up naturally. So you end up having to use more Q-tips as a result. Bit of a catch-22.

There''s no problem with cleaning the outer area of the ear - just don''t stick them where you can''t see

 

[fossilrock]

Has anyone ever used the ear candles? I use Q-tips everyday as well, but have tried these a few times. The first time I did it, all this nasty stuff was in the end of the candle. It was disgusting. But then I read on-line somewhere that the candles aren''t really doing anything, and the grossness isn''t ear wax, but candle wax. Who knows?

 

[gwendolyn]

Yeah, I had a friend who had to go to the hospital due to a mishap with a Q-tip. She tripped while she was using it and it got pushed down much farther than it should so she had a doctor remove it. The doc gave her quite an earful (no pun intended

) since she could have done serious damage to her eardrum!

That being said, I do still use cotton buds to clean my ears, and I once had a doctor tell me that I had the cleanest ears he''d ever seen! So, I don''t know.

 

[mousey]

This sounds weird, but.... A couple of drops of olive oil works wonders at getting rid of build up. I had a wax plug (lovely!) a couple of years ago that was causing me some pain. The DR offered to syringe it for me, but I did nt like the idea of it. he told me to put a couple of drops in each ear at nighttime. It was nt very nice on our bed linen but it solved the problem.

 

[Callisto]

Date: 2/13/2010 8:17:57 AM
Author: gemgirl

Date: 2/12/2010 10:37:42 PM

Author: pennquaker09

Sabine, I''m in the same boat, my hubby is a ped and he tells me all the time not to use them. He bought these ear drops that you use to dissolve the wax, but I can''t seem to find it. If I do, I''ll post the name of it or I''m sure you can ask your hubby.

My ENT told me about the ear cleaning solution you can buy over the counter after he yelled at me for using Q-tips everyday, which I still do because I don''t like that sticky,sappy, unclean feeling either. The ear cleaner is ''Debrox''.

There''s a few brands of liquid drops that I''ve used. I have really curvy ear canals (so says my doctor) so sometimes if even a little wax gets stuck it impedes my hearing. So I try to use this stuff in my ears like once a month. It''s pretty oily feeling but it does help. If you use it though, don''t expect to see anything after you wipe the drops out (like you would when you get your ears flushed at the doctor) cause the drops dissolve wax.

I still use q-tips to wipe out the outer part of my ear occasionally but I have stopped putting them into the canal.