Alright listen up, one and all. As a SLP l I feel that it is necessary to alert you to the horrors of a damaging health-risk many people have in their daily routine. I have told friends who have told me they participate in this daily habit that it's bad, and they usually tune me off, make some lame excuse, or say that I'm wrong. Well, sorry folks, the medical world agrees with me, and my audiology professor probably hammered this concept into every class member's head.
Somewhere, sometime in history the public gained the perception that earwax is "bad." An evil, gross being that lurks in your ear that is in need of being disposed of. NO! NOT TRUE! God put earwax in our ears for a reason. It protects! It's a natural barrier! Consider it a great wall of China keeping out the invading Huns who want to create a habitat in your ear. By removing it with a q-tip, you are robbing a soldier of his sword and armor. You are tearing the roof off a house during a rainstorm. Too much? Sorry.
Usually about this time into the discussion someone will say, "But I use it to clean my ear! My ear is itchy if I don't clean it!" Your ear canal is a delicate and moist place. Thereby when you brush/whack a q-tip against it, it makes it dry, it irritates it, which makes you want to continue doing it. One viscous cycle. Besides irritating and damaging the delicate skin that lines the ear canal. the damaged skin will break down and crack (you might have even got some blood on the q-tip when you take it out of the ear)- which says- hello bacteria and fungus! Welcome in! Make yourselves at home...
Earwax (scientifically known as 'cerumen') is produced by glands that line your outer canal. No hogwash bimbo about it originating from yucky build-up in your ear. It doesn't come from bacteria, it actually prevents bacteria from entering your ear! Bacteria loooove homes with low acidity (just as we like buying homes with really nice kitchens), and when you swipe that earwax away, you're causing an imbalance in the ph level. Bacteria will buy that home without even requiring the home inspection.
Earwax is actually produced and located in the outer parts of the ear canal and not by the eardrum. If you're asking, well how do I clean it? Guess what? The ear is such a cool contraption that it cleans itself! The earwax actually gradually works itself outwards in a cycle. Creating new earwax and getting rid of the old. When you use a q-tip it's like taking a big toilet plunger and pushing earwax further into the canal close to the eardrum. The cleaning cycle doesn't work back there, because that's not where earwax is made. You're pushing it past the point of no return to naturally get it out. Gross? Yes. You're naturally building up earwax back there where it can cause unhealthy results. This build-up can actually cause hearing loss. No joke.
Now I'm sure you've heard of this reason-puncturing the eardrum. Which is a good reason not to do it. You shouldn't even be sticking something that far, because as you've already just learned- there's no earwax down there! Unless you pushed it down there yourself (but do NOT take that as a reason to start going down that far). Ruptured eardrums can lead to DEADLY bacterial infections. There's actually an article here entitled "Cotton swabs in ears can be deadly, coroner warns." They say the man likely died from the ear infection that resulted from a cotton swab piercing the eardrum. Is death a good enough reason to make you stop? Sure hope so. While death is very rare, you can cause a number of infections or hearing loss!
Even if you're one of those that say "I make sure not to put the q-tip in too far...", we've already discussed the havoc that no earwax in the canal causes. Open invitation to debris and infection to start seeping in your ear. Even possibly bugs- the earwax stops them. Back to the soldier example-earwax is the armor against an invading attack. Removing it leaves your ear very vulnerable and prone to infection.
There are some people that have reasons where they need to have earwax removed: excessive earwax and the like. Be sure to talk to your doctor about safe ways that you're suppose to remove it.
Disclaimer: I love q-tips! I use them all the time! Mostly for make-up removal. And by q-tip, I mean all cotton swab brands. They have many great uses, but none of them include sticking it in your ear. Guess what? Any cotton swab box has the following warning:
Additional Reading/Sources:http://www.divinecaroline.com/22175/87914-wax-on-quit-using-q-tips/2
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