Enough Is Enough — Here's Why You Need To Stop Using Q-Tips To Clean Your Ears
Ever since I saw that episode of Girls where Hannah punctured her eardrum with a Q-tip, I vowed to never use the cursed device to clean my ears again — no matter how waxy they became.
My friends, on the other hand, are all avid Q-tip users. And I'm gonna guess a lot of you who are reading this are too. I know most people have the sense to not go eardrum-deep with those babies, but have you ever asked a doctor if you should really be excavating anything from your ears at all?
NBC
That's where Emily J Taylor, AuD., FAAA comes into the picture to help us out. She's a doctor of Audiology based in Baltimore, Maryland, and she just so happens to make a lot of informative TikToks about ear health.
In a video that now has over 26 million views on the platform, she uses a model of an ear, peanut butter, and a Q-tip to demonstrate why you shouldn't use the cotton buds to remove wax.
@dr_ear_wax PSA on Qtips! Stop using them to clean your ears! #qtip #wax #earwax #earcleaning #debrox #earcandle #unrealisticthings #holidaycountdown #familytime
♬ original sound - DrEarWax
"Generally speaking, Q-tips tend to push wax deeper down the ear canal toward the eardrum," Dr. Taylor told BuzzFeed. "This makes the wax more difficult to remove in the office because of the close proximity to the eardrum, which is extremely sensitive. The fibers from the Q-tip can also get left behind in the ear and require a professional to remove the blockage."
"I see patients more often than I would like with a wax impaction pushed all the way down their ear canal from a Q-tip," Dr. Taylor said. "Luckily for us, we have an awesome new machine in the office, which helps comfortably remove wax with body temperature water. I would say more often than not, a patient comes in and reports they are regularly using Q-tips."
When asked how Q-tip usage became so widespread, Dr. Taylor said, "Probably because Q-tips are an item typically kept in the bathroom, so they seem like the perfectly sized object to stick in the ear canal to remove moisture and wax. If you read the Q-tip box, it specifically says not to use it in the ear canal."
The more you know.