When you notice wax in your ears or feel like your ears are clogged or full, it's tempting to grab a Q-tip from your medicine cabinet and use it to try to remove whatever's in your ear. However, this is not safe and can negatively impact the health of your ears -- despite the satisfying feeling you may get when you remove that wax.
To help you better care for your ears, let's discuss why Q-tips can be dangerous and what you should use instead to remove earwax.
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Why Q-tips can be dangerous for your ears
The cotton swab, also known as the Q-tip, is the most common device used for cleaning your ears. Its shortcomings illustrate the basic problems with using these types of instruments for earwax removal.
Thanks to their long, narrow shape, Q-tips are more likely to push earwax into your ear than pulling it out. When you attempt to use one to clean your ear canal, you risk simply compacting the earwax and creating a blockage that makes it harder to hear.
Worse still, if you push a Q-tip too hard or too far into your ear canal, you may actually puncture your eardrum. The ear canal is only about an inch (2.5 centimeters) deep, so there's not a lot of margin for error. One ear, nose and throat specialist CNET previously spoke with has even treated patients who seriously damaged their eardrums by answering the phone with a Q-tip sticking out of one of their ears. That's a phone call that can truly ruin your day.
In general, it's best to use cotton swabs -- or even just a tissue or damp, clean rag -- to clean the outer portion of your ear, outside the canal.
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How to safely clean your ears
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