Do you stick cotton buds in your ears?

[Ari]

I know I know, you're not supposed to, but when they start getting gummed up I just can't resist a scrape around!

Anyone else do this?

And am I going to knacker my ears in the process?

[vixen1700]

Yes, it's a bit of a guilty pleasure really.

[cal216610]

Yeah, but it makes me cough.

[MartG]

cal216610 said:

Yeah, but it makes me cough.

Me too, but only my right ear

[BerksBoy]

try swapping the buds for hair grips (using the circular end).... same result, less risk of damage

for added fun, return used grip to mrs's dressing table...

[ScoobyDood]

Yes - Everyday after showering - The feeling is strangely 'orgasmesque'

As an aside, has anyone tried those Chinese ear candle things, stick 'em in your ear and set light to them - Horrendous amount of wax they seem to get out - tried it once purely as an experiment - Amount of wax was about the size of a cigarette filter - from each ear!!!!

[simoid]

My OH likes doing it to me.

[GhiaX]

If you're not supposed to stick them in your ears, what the feck are they made for then??

[Triumph Man]

I have a history of bad ears, which came to a head a few years ago with an ear drum lunching itself. As such my ears produce more wax than they should. I looked at ear candles, although frankly for £20 my ears can stay waxy. I use ear drops which reduce the wax right down by turning it into a liquid so it dribbles out.

[minky monkey]

simoid said:

My OH likes doing it to me.

Yes, but what about your ears?

[Odie]

use an ear pick, just be very very gentle.

[simoid]

Triumph Man said:

an ear drum lunching itself.

Quality PHism

[minky monkey]

I seem to produce a lot more wax in one ear than the other. Had a terrible spell a couple of years back, kept going deaf temporarily and nothing would shift a particularly stubborn bout. Ear drops over the course of a week got there in the end.

I think that it was made worse by my use of cotton buds. Still use them now though!

[BigMacDaddy]

My wife is an audiological scientist, and goes mental if she catches me doing this. Never caused me any harm though

[Odie]

problem with useing cotton buds is it compacts the wax making the problem worse, your better off with drops or keeping on top of it with an ear pick. Ive had some serious ear wax problems in the past, ive had my ears syringed at the point where it was painful and pea size bits of ear wax was coming out.

[MartG]

I just use them to dry the outer part of the ear canal after a shower - I tend not to suffer from too much wax so don't need to delve any deeper

[BerksBoy]

BigMacDaddy said:

My wife is an audiological scientist, and goes mental if she catches me doing this. Never caused me any harm though

pardon?

[Meoricin]

I use a cocktail stick... It's great when you manage to find a block, but feels a bit disappointing if you end up with a tiny amount of wax scraped from the walls.

[Kudos]

One of lifes little pleasures

[Shay HTFC]

GhiaX said:

If you're not supposed to stick them in your ears, what the feck are they made for then??

Yeah. I thought using ear buds to clean ears was pretty common practice