Without a doubt, Earwax is… well, pretty icky so it’s not surprising most people could take it to mean one is dirty for not cleaning it out. But the practice of cleaning the ears on a regular basis have been discovered to be unsafe, as it could put your hearing at risk with every attempt to remove the wax.
Here are reasons why you should probably stop swabbing your ears with cotton buds regularly.
It could lead to loss of hearing:
The rigid, pointy shape of cotton swabs can damage the skin, eardrum, and ossicles. For the most part, swabs simply condense and impact the earwax further into the ear canal where it can cause pressure, pain and temporary or worse, permanent hearing loss.
It is not a sign of dirtiness:
Ears are self-cleaning. Studies have shown that it is the only part of the body in which the skin grows in a direction, bringing the wax and skin debris out from the canal to the outer ear. While it may seem gross, however, ear canal produces a waxy oil called ‘cerumen’ which traps dust, dirt and any other foreign particles, transporting them out of the ear as wax. This eventually goes out of the ear without our notice. Additionally, some people have more earwax than others, as the ears make the amount of wax they need.
Ear wax keeps the ear healthy:
The ear has its own internal cleaning mechanism so one should realize that the wax isn’t bad at all. It keeps your ear dry and helps prevent infection. Therefore, you don’t want to remove the wax, instead, keep it from blocking your ears.
It could lead to other severe ear injuries:
The skin of the ear canal is ultra-thin and could be easily injured by just about anything you stick in there. People would put anything they can think of into their ears when they feel discomfort – matchstick, fingernails, pen, bobby pins, sewing needles, keys, just to name a few. Anything sharp or shaped like the cotton bud will pose the same risks of damaging the skin, and if the skin is broken, it can get infected which could lead to a painful internal or external ear complications.
