Never put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow!

Sunday night was Q-Tip night!  
​If you have wax issues don't dig- Call!!

The twisted pleasure of cleaning your ears
We continue to twist Q-tips/cotton buds in our ears thanks to a simple truth: It feels great. Our ears are filled with sensitive nerve endings, which send signals to various other parts of our bodies. Tickling their insides triggers all sorts of visceral pleasure.
But there's more. Using Q-tips/cotton buds leads to what dermatologists refer to as the itch-scratch cycle, a self-perpetuating addiction of sorts. The more you use them, the more your ears itch; and the more your ears itch, the more you use them.

I don't know about you, but before I knew better I would love nothing more than digging into my ear with a Q-Tip/cotton bud to remove my ear wax!  I have clear memories of my mother, every Sunday night before bath time digging into my ears to "remove the dirt" so that my "ears would be clean for school" .  My sister and I not only took great pleasure in the process but in inspecting the Q-Tip results; to establish which one of us had the most wax!  For some reason my sister had an involuntary cough every time Mum dug into her ears!
With my first born the Q-Tip/cotton was also a daily friend, not only were ears cleaned but nostrils too! 

Most people don't use Q-tips/cotton buds properly and wind up putting them inside their ears to feel "clean." Big mistake! Not only is ear wax good for you, but putting a Q-Tip anywhere except for the outermost parts of your ear can be a big detriment to your health. 
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Take a look at the link below and see why, William H. Shapiro, an audiologist and a clinical associate professor from NYU Langone, reveals why we should stay away from Q-Tips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYqeUJda2Qs

Fitzgerald, the otolaryngologist, insists there's nothing funny about the temptation to stick cotton swabs into your ears. At the heart of the problem is a fundamental misunderstanding Fitzgerald believes manufacturers have helped propagate, even if unintentionally, by talking in advertisements about their use in ear cleaning.

"People have been led to think that it's normal to clean their ears — they think that ear wax is dirty, that it's gross or unnecessary," he said. "But that's not true at all."
Fitzgerald likens ear wax to tears, which help lubricate and protect our eyeballs. Wax, he says, does something similar for the ear canal, where the skin is thin and fragile and highly susceptible to infection.
"Your body produces it [ear wax] to protect the ear canal," Fitzgerald said. "What you're taking out is supposed to be in there. There's a natural migration that carries the wax out when left alone."

Even if our ears were meant to be cleaned, the truth is that Q-tips would still be a terrible thing to use, he says. The shape, size, and texture of cotton swabs is such that inserting them into your ears tends to push wax inward, toward your ear drum, rather than work it out.

"Pushing wax in, as Q-tips tend to do, can induce hearing loss," said Fitzgerald. "They can also be inserted too deeply and rupture the ear drum or damage the small middle ear bones, both of which happen more than you would think."
"If it were up to me, they wouldn't be on the market," he said. "When I treat people with recurring ear problems, I make them promise they're going to throw away their Q-tips and never buy them again. The ones who keep coming back with problems are the ones who don't listen."

Despite warnings on every box, we can't help ourselves! (I'm still tempted every time I see the box in my bathroom cabinet)   We continue to stick them in our ears with the potential of causing harm by doing so . Many people push the wax down deep where it can’t clean itself out and they have to get professional care.  If you are having issues with your ears and see yourself and indeed your actions in this blog, don't despair!!
First step- Bin the box of Q-Tips
Second step- Contact Audiology Associates today and let us check your hearing health! 

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