Could Poking Your Eardrum with a Q-Tip Cause Any Damage to the Inner Ear?

[Hariz Nonis]

That's what I ask the doctors to use to take care of my wax. You're not going to use that on yourself though (I imagine that's not what you meant, even though it's the spirit of the thread).

Well, I do use the spoon shaped ear curette on myself to remove wax. Been doing it for years now

 

[GregCA]

Well, I do use the spoon shaped ear curette on myself to remove wax. Been doing it for years now

That's not something I'd recommend doing.

 

[Hariz Nonis]

That's not something I'd recommend doing.

Hmm, I'll try to slowly stop then. It shouldn't have caused any issues with my hearing, should it?

 

[sirhand]

You're not supposed to use anything. What do you use them for? Most people use them to "take out the wax", but what they fail to realize is that ears are self cleaning and wax is a key element in that process.

In a healthy ear, wax is generated and is slowly pushed out of the ear canal naturally, catching a bunch of debris along the way.

Unless your ear is not healthy (and you do know for a fact that it doesn't generate wax, or generates too much, or accumulates the wax, etc...), then it requires no maintenance.

QTips not only carry a risk of injury to the ear drum, they also generally make things worse by compacting wax closer to the ear drum, like a piston.

At some point the wax has to be removed. Or you become one of those people who have visible wax in their ears.
I don't know why someone would use a cotton swab to push wax down into their ear. The proper technique is a circular, rotation motion to transfer the wax from the walls of the ear to the cotton.
Any problems resulting from cotton swab use is most likely user error.
Notice how the finger fits right in the ear? We evolved to clean our ears (and noses) with our fingers. So don't go any deeper than that and you should be fine.

 

[GregCA]

At some point the wax has to be removed.

Wax does have a useful purpose in your body. There can be issues in some cases, of medical nature, but as a general statement, there is no health related requirement to get rid of your wax.

Or you become one of those people who have visible wax in their ears.

You're worrying about a cosmetic issue. Once the wax has reached the outside of the canal, you can gently pick it up or wash it down, as it already played its role in the canal.

I don't know why someone would use a cotton swab to push wax down into their ear. The proper technique is a circular, rotation motion to transfer the wax from the walls of the ear to the cotton.

Unless you have a specific medical condition calling for it, it is unnecessary to remove the wax from your ear canal: when you do, you're removing something that is designed to keep your ear healthy.

Any problems resulting from cotton swab use is most likely user error.

Perhaps, but it's an easy error to make given that there is no way to get feedback about how close you are getting to the ear drum. Also, the result is often a compaction of wax near the ear drum, in spite of using the aforementioned motion, making the situation worse.

Notice how the finger fits right in the ear?

If you can reach your ear drum with your finger you should know it is not the norm. We can generally reach the outside of the canal that interfaces with the pinna, where it's safe to clean the wax that you are unhappy about being seen. Perhaps that's what you mean. That's a very different reach from the reach provided by instruments like a curette or a q-tip (which can reach the ear drum).

 

[sirhand]

@GregCA I think we're in agreement, there is no reason to go deeper than the finger can go. Perhaps I should have put that first.

 

[Theezy]

I was just wondering if you kind of poke against you eardrum with a q-tip, could this cause damage to the inner ear.

I did not have any pain nor do I think it damaged the eardrum but of course I have a huge spike in tinnitus.

Did your spike from the q-tip go down?