Why putting cotton buds in your ear is the worst thing to do

It's something that doctors and health experts have told us time and time again: do not put cotton buds in your ears. 

It's super tempting to 'clean' the wax out with these perfectly sized sticks, so why exactly is it so bad for us?

If your ears are blocked with wax using a cotton bud stick can make your situation worse and can even give you a hearing problem.

When we put Q-tips in our ears, even though it may seem we're removing the wax from the ear, the bud is actually pushing the wax down the ear canal towards the eardrum and impacts it.

If this build-up of earwax presses up against the skin of the eardrum, it can mean it doesn't vibrate as well, and the vibrations is how we hear, so therefore cause hearing problems.

It turns out that there is actually no reason to ever use Q tips or anything in our ears as they are "self-cleaning", according to Oxford University Hospitals.

They explain in a patient guide: "If you use cotton buds or anything else to clean your ears, you can disrupt the ears' natural cleaning system.

"Often the only thing this achieves is to push wax further down the ear canal, making you feel deaf temporarily and causing damage to your ear canal or your ear drum."

If you did end up experiencing a build-up of ear wax, the best thing to do is visit your doctor to have your ears cleaned out in a simple procedure.

Better living everyone!

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