Lifestyle

Doctors Say This will Happen to You if You’re Still Using Cotton Buds to Dig Your Ears in 2017

2017-01-09 , 10:34 am

When the insides of our ears are itchy, we always use Q-tips, also known as cotton buds, to scratch the insides or to dig out the earwax.

Are you doing the same thing too? Well, after reading this, you might want to stop doing it.

The Ear Experts Want You to Stop Digging Your Ears, Period.

Though many may not think much about this action, the Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, or in layman’s term, the ear experts beg to differ.

They have recently published an updated set of guidelines for ear wax. In it, they said that nothing should ever be placed in your ears or it might lead to cerumen (ear wax) impact.

Cerumen Impact AKA Blockage of the Ear by Earwax

According to the Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, using cotton buds to clean your ears only pushes the earwax into your ear canal which results in them adding up and eventually, leading to blockage.

Symptoms of cerumen impact include hard of hearing, pain in your ears, odour, cough and itching.

And before you complain and moan about the first world problem of earwax, they are, believe it or not, beneficial to us.

The Importance of Ear Wax

Earwax is produced by the body to protect our ear canals. Haven’t you ever wondered, with our ears so exposed to the elements, why is it that the ears are probably the part that causes the least problems? At least until you decided to meddle in its operations, that is.

It has both lubricating and antibacterial properties to help protect your ear canals.

Let Nature Take Its Course

So what should you do? The answer is nothing! According to the experts, our bodies will naturally discharge ear wax by itself. The old ear wax will be moved externally by the movements of our jaws such as chewing and flake off your ears.

Here’s another fun fact: ear wax are produced in our external ear canals so the only way it can go deeper is because we pushed it in ourselves.

Pretty ironic considering we were trying to remove them, huh?

The Do’s and Don’t’s of Earwax

So now that you know, tell people to stop digging in their ears for gold and let it come out by itself instead!

Don’t say we never tell you ah!

Featured image: isitbadforyou.com

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com