Do you stick cotton buds in your ears?
Discussion
Shay HTFC said:
Genuine question... how are you meant to clean your ears if you don't use ear buds??
Put your head in the bath. Or let the shower spray hit your ear. It's generally bad news to go around shoving solid objects up there. You don't clean it so much as push the wax up against the drum and make yourself deaf.Other options include a few drops of olive oil which will soften the wax and make it come out easier in the bath, or have a professional dig around in there where they can see what they are doing.
Try and leave it for a while to get the maximum amount of ming out in one go - more satisfying that way 
If I have forgotten for a while and use the little ear plugs they give you before getting in the chopper to the rig, they will come out brown - always feel slightly proud of my body for achieving something quite so disgusting without out any conscious effort on my part
If I have forgotten for a while and use the little ear plugs they give you before getting in the chopper to the rig, they will come out brown - always feel slightly proud of my body for achieving something quite so disgusting without out any conscious effort on my part
Yeah, amazing what you can find in them. I once had the full ear cleaning treatment in Vietnam with the long pincers and the dentists chair and everything and the amount of cack they pulled out was something else. They put it all in a little pile for you to see too, so by the end there was a little mountain of waxy, dead skin piled up on the table.
I was pretty proud of that little pile.
I was pretty proud of that little pile.
GWC said:
They don't remove wax from your ear it's just residue from the candle.
You beat me to it. It's physically impossible for an ear candle to have any medical effect - except perhaps by dripping melted beeswax onto the ear drum!edit: On the subject, I have an Otex ear bulb I bought from a Walgreens in the US when I had a "blockage". It came with the peroxide solution to soften the wax, but it works well with warm water, you basically just keep pumping water in until the blockage is shifted, no nurse required! You can get the same kit in Boots here, although in Walgreens there were about half a dozen to choose from, that place is amazing!
The Boots kit: http://www.boots.com/en/Otex-Express-Combi-Pack-10...
Edited by Gareth79 on Tuesday 20th March 23:17
I think I might be lucky enough to not produce much ear wax, as I regularly push (pre-wetted) cotton buds right into my ears to the point of 'ouch', spin them round and bring them out again.
Usually nothing more than a few tiny bits on there, so I guess I don't make enough ear wax to have to worry about the buds pushing the wax further in.
39 years old, never had any ear trouble, or loss of hearing due to a wax build up.
But better than that, when I'm not at home - if I get an inner ear itch, I like nothing better than ramming a long doorkey from my keyring into the ear and having a good scratch around with that!
Is that really bad???
Usually nothing more than a few tiny bits on there, so I guess I don't make enough ear wax to have to worry about the buds pushing the wax further in.
39 years old, never had any ear trouble, or loss of hearing due to a wax build up.
But better than that, when I'm not at home - if I get an inner ear itch, I like nothing better than ramming a long doorkey from my keyring into the ear and having a good scratch around with that!
Is that really bad???
Leptons said:
News to me too, I've been doing it 20+ years !?
Doctors see so much ear damage from it that they would rather syringe them all for life than deal with the hearing loss. I'm sure if you are careful it's fine, but I guess there are many people who don't realise that the ear canal doesn't stop with an impenetrable surface The comment by one I remembered is "don't put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow"
Gareth79 said:
Doctors see so much ear damage from it that they would rather syringe them all for life than deal with the hearing loss. I'm sure if you are careful it's fine, but I guess there are many people who don't realise that the ear canal doesn't stop with an impenetrable surface
The comment by one I remembered is "don't put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow"
To be fair I thought my daughter had deafened me a few years ago when she tried to clean my ear out unbeknown to me. That hurt.The comment by one I remembered is "don't put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow"
I am currently having difficulty hearing out of my left ear due to wax build up, got an appointment with the health centre nurse to get it syringed on wednesday. Absolutely fed up, been using otex drops and cotton buds for the last few days but although i seem to have removed a metric ton of wax i still can't hear any better.
I normally need to get my ears syringed every 18 months or so as my outer ear canals are very narrow and the doc reckons i am just one of the unlucky ones that produce excessive amounts if wax. That otex combi kit looks a good shout though, might give it a try.
My ear wax seems to absolutely stink too, gives me the boak!
I normally need to get my ears syringed every 18 months or so as my outer ear canals are very narrow and the doc reckons i am just one of the unlucky ones that produce excessive amounts if wax. That otex combi kit looks a good shout though, might give it a try.
My ear wax seems to absolutely stink too, gives me the boak!
oobster said:
I am currently having difficulty hearing out of my left ear due to wax build up, got an appointment with the health centre nurse to get it syringed on wednesday. Absolutely fed up, been using otex drops and cotton buds for the last few days but although i seem to have removed a metric ton of wax i still can't hear any better.
I normally need to get my ears syringed every 18 months or so as my outer ear canals are very narrow and the doc reckons i am just one of the unlucky ones that produce excessive amounts if wax. That otex combi kit looks a good shout though, might give it a try.
The problem with buds/fingers etc. is that unless you can see what you are trying to remove, inevitably you will push some of it back towards the ear drum making the problem worse.I normally need to get my ears syringed every 18 months or so as my outer ear canals are very narrow and the doc reckons i am just one of the unlucky ones that produce excessive amounts if wax. That otex combi kit looks a good shout though, might give it a try.
The trick to the bulbs is to use pretty warm (but not painfully hot) water, try and flush the water in different directions in the canal, and do it until you can tell it has all come out (it might take a dozen or more squirts), or that it won't shift.
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