8 ms·

On the subject of earwax and unsupported medical arguments

74 points by luu 4y ago

frou_dh 4y ago
I stopped doing it not because of real or imagined wax impaction, but because I had been doing it exactly the same way forever and one day it actually did perforate my eardrum. I guess my luck finally ran out. Now that's healed and I don't feel it's worth the risk to start again.
- chasingthewind 4y ago
  What was that experience like? Did it hurt? How did they treat it?
  - frou_dh 4y ago
    It was actually a very uncomplicated process. Not much pain. I significantly lost hearing in that ear immediately. There was not really any way to treat it apart from waiting for it to heal itself, which it did after about 4 weeks. Hard to tell whether it's truly as good as new though.
    - angry_octet 4y ago
      If you've only done it once and you're not too old it should be fine. But I would be careful flying with a blocked nose or doing any diving. Depends on how big your eustachian tubes are.
- branon 4y ago
  Ah, damn. This sounds a lot like me except I haven't had my day of reckoning yet. I really don't stick 'em all that far in there, though...
Arrath 4y ago
I often spend entire shifts with foam ear plugs in, they fairly regularly come out with some earwax on them. I found my replacement for q-tips, with no danger of perforating my eardrum!
- ollo 4y ago
  don't the ear plugs push the ear wax in?
  - bjelkeman-again 4y ago
    They can do. So a earwax remover (drops) is good to use from time to time. I use in ear protection from loud sounds (my rock band).
SaberTail 4y ago
My anecdote is that I've tried to clear out wax with a Q-tip only to "clog" the ear. I could still hear a little out of the affected ear, and it wasn't painful, but it was very annoying. The only thing that eventually fixed it was flushing the ear with lots of warm water to get the wax plug out.
LightG 4y ago
Personal experience of someone who previously had a lot of trouble with wax (due to narrow tubes I'm told). 1)Normal soapy water around the ears during daily shower. Not in the ear. 2) Let the inner ear clean itself via natural oils. 3) Annual microsuction if needed.
number6 4y ago
My wife had to go to the doctor to get some cotton removed cause she was using qtips
- Lendal 4y ago
  Me too. This article is missing one obvious detail. If you rub a Qtip back and forth against your skin, you will find that cotton fibers rub off. It doesn't take much to imagine this same phenomenon is also happening inside your ear canal when you rub the Qtip in there. When it does, those fibers stay inside there, collecting oil and dirt, leading to more earwax build-up, leading to more Qtips, leading to even more cotton fibers, etc. It's just a really bad solution to the problem. You don't need a study for something you can just observe first-hand yourself. They do make plastic earwax cleaners that don't leave any debris inside your ears when used. Roughly shaped like a Qtip but without the cotton. Pretty cheap and also reusable, unlike Qtips. Available at any local pharmacy.
agolio 4y ago
Only tangentially related, non-scientific, probably not interesting to anyone else comment checking in. My puppy always licks the inside of my ears and since then they are super clean all the time (like no external earwax at all) but I am scared of getting an ear infection.
- the_gipsy 4y ago
  Can't you just clean the outside yourself, like in the shower? You can easily get infections for example from seawater residue.
- angry_octet 4y ago
  You could lose your ear and a chunk of your face. Doesn't seem worth it. https://ejcrim.com/index.php/EJCRIM/article/download/1268/1808?inline=1 https://ejcrim.com/index.php/EJCRIM/article/download/1268/18...
lovehashbrowns 4y ago
I stopped using q-tips because after like 20-something years of using q-tips safely, it took one bad left-handed cleaning job to hurt my ear. I think I mostly got lucky. I went in too far with my non-dominant hand and caused some sharp pain on what is probably my ear drum. No hearing loss, nothing major, but it was pretty painful and more than enough to get me to stop. I was just like the author! I was like there's no way this can be bad as long as you don't go in too deep.
- icpmacdo 4y ago
  This is quite salient, two days ago I did the same thing. Left non dominate hand with a q-tip, no pain at all though really. I don't think i went too overly deep but the entire left side of my has felt blocked since, this article is making me think maybe I pushed the wax deeper and might have a blockage? Is this something you would consult a doctor over or does it usually work itself out?
  - a_t48 4y ago
    Your local drug store has cleaner that can sit in your ear and dissolve ear wax, along with a special ear pick. In my experience it works well, especially if you have someone to do the awkward scooping after. YMMV if it works better than hydrogen peroxide and a qtip
  - lovehashbrowns 4y ago
    It’s really not a big deal! It might work itself out over time but you can get one of those ear wax cleaning kits. In my uneducated experience, the formulation they come with doesn’t help a whole ton, but the key part is the rubber bulb you get to flush water into your ear. You’re gonna want to follow the kit’s instructions around safety, but it’s overall pretty easy and doesn’t take too long to clear up some fairly significant blockage.
- snarfy 4y ago
  When I was in school, there was a guy with a large over-ear hearing aid in one of his ears. I asked him about it. He said he was cleaning his ear one day with a q-tip. His sister snuck up behind him with an aired up paper bag and popped it. "BOO!" He jumped and smashed the q-tip into his ear.
noasaservice 4y ago
Damn that's a user hostile site. Ublock origin blocking to the rescue.
jmull 4y ago
> you shouldn’t listen to me over actual doctors This part is right. Everyone should stop reading right there.
earboi 4y ago
I am a primary care physician, so ear wax is something I deal with every day (or every other day). Medical advice is tailored to meet the needs of everyone, erring on the side of extreme caution. Do I trust myself to insert a q-tip into my ear and not rupture my eardrum? Yes. Do I trust most highly intelligent hacker news readers? Probably. Do I trust the bottom 10% of the general population (in IQ, dexterity, and good judgement)? Hell no. Our medical system is a "no-miss" culture that has extreme life altering penalties for physicians that give medical care that leads to harm. Is rupturing an ear drum a big deal? I'm not so sure, but I bet you can find a plaintiff's attorney hungry enough to sue over it. Don't go to medical school.
- philosopher1234 4y ago
  Choosing to trust everything you wrote here based on the devotion displayed in your username
- nixpulvis 4y ago
  IDK why, but I really needed to hear this right now. (I guess it's a good thing I keep my ears clean)
- AlbertCory 4y ago
  My PCP cleaned out one of my ears recently. I'd trust her more than I'd trust myself. Although I can criticize lawyers for saying this, "out of an abundance of caution" is a totally reasonable thing for a PCP to say. Thanks, Doc.
- rawgabbit 4y ago
  I noticed there are several medical doctors on Hacker News which is interesting. My son is currently attending college in the USA. His dream is to get accepted into medical school. When you posted "Don't go to medical school.", are you being sarcastic? Or are you serious. Is medical school a dead end in 2022 in the USA?
  - bombcar 4y ago
    I would find some doctors you can trust to speak honestly off the record, and talk with them.
gwbas1c 4y ago
Once, after watching a video of a giant earwax plug being removed, I realized I probably had quite a bit stuck in there. I very gently slid a q-tip into my ear, and all it did was push some earwax to a funny angle in my ear canal. It was quite painful. I went to the doctor and they used pressurized water to get the earwax out. Unfortunately, they dumped the bin before I could see how much came out.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- bcrosby95 4y ago
  I had a plugged ear and had to get it cleaned out by a doctor. It was problematic for about 5 years, but I could just push on my ear a bit and hear again. Eventually, that stopped working. When the doctor cleaned it out, a chunk of earwax about the size of a cigarette butt came out.
  - prometheus76 4y ago
    I use a waterpik with warm water on the lowest setting, and it's like magic for the problem you had.
- mpol 4y ago
  I used a few drops of paraffine oil in both ears, then in the next few weeks some small pieces of dark and hard earwax came out. I am using q-tips too and had slight worries about pushing wax into my ears. Turned out to be rightful worries somewhat.
swader999 4y ago
My biggest issue is ear hair that grows around and around and never comes close enough to pluck out. Drives me nuts. I know this because I've stuck a camera thing down there and have seen it. I suppose I need to see a specialist. This wasn't in the getting old brochure.
- fmajid 4y ago
  Or worse, touches your eardrum and makes scratchy sounds when you chew. I had to have an ENT remove one 30 years ago.
- Legogris 4y ago
  Why is it a problem?
  - swader999 4y ago
    It constantly tickles.
    - Legogris 4y ago
      Damn, that does sound terrible.
jollyllama 4y ago
The thing that's lost on a lot of the discussion around earwax is that your ears will generally adjust to producing the right amount of wax, taking into account what activities you do. In the spring, when I first swim, I won't have enough earwax because I haven't been swimming, and water gets stuck in my ears. By the summer, they adjust, and water stays out of my ears. In the fall, when I stop swimming, I find that I now have too much ear wax and it feels uncomfortable. It tapers off in the winter back to the proper level. Note also that if I use q-tips, this will also increase ear wax production, but will remove the protection it provides, and water will get stuck in my ears until it builds up again. I've also found that using earplugs will increase production, as will drinking alcohol.
- halpmeh 4y ago
  Yes, this one surprising realization I came to during the pandemic. I habitually cleaned my ears before leaving for the office. When I needed to WFH, I stopped cleaning them because the habit had been disrupted. There was a lot of wax at first, but now I have just the right amount and never need to clear them.
  - RC_ITR 4y ago
    The secret behind grooming (I've made it, I've finally discussed proper hygiene on HN and its contextually relevant) is that it boils down to 3 types: 1) Preference/Social - This is primarily smell and appearance-based. For example, you won't see medical problems from irregular bathing (as long as you keep wounds/orifices clean), not cutting your hair, or not wearing deodorant, society just politely asks that you do those things. 2) Modern-life Adaptions- This is things like tooth brushing. We need to do it more because of our modern diets than anything else. 3) Comfort - This is things like cutting your finder nails so you don't scratch yourself. Using this framework, you realize you can get away with not doing a lot: pretty much everything except 2 is medically optional (especially after you let your body get back to homeostasis) - but keep in mind just because you and those close to you can't smell you, that does not mean strangers can't smell you. Ear cleaning, FWIW falls mostly in 3, but maybe in extreme cases it becomes 1; if you're swimming a lot maybe it's a 2, but rarely is that true. But also, given the above, please be considerate of others and do as much 1 as you're capable of.
gernb 4y ago
The advice being complained about also seems to leave out things like, there are 2 basic kinds of earwax, wet & dry https://www.google.com/search?q=kinds+of+earwax https://www.google.com/search?q=kinds+of+earwax they require different care Western medicine says "don't put q-tips in your ears". Japanese (and Chinese?) seem very different. You can find these at any medicine store in Japan, possibly even every convenience store https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E8%80%B3%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8D/b?ie=UTF8&node=169807011 https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E8%80%B3%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8D/b?ie=UT... they look far more dangerous than a q-tip Here's a specialty shop https://mimikakitei.com/ https://mimikakitei.com/ They also have sticks with cotton on them and one of the first VR experiences I ever had was of having your ears cleaned. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dlsite.nagomimi&hl=ja&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dlsite.nag... also, also, here's a funny silly game about cleaning your ears https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.liica.mimikaki&hl=ja&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.liica.mi... https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/%E6%AF%8E%E6%97%A5%E3%81%AE%E8%80%B3%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8D/id561918643 https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/%E6%AF%8E%E6%97%A5%E3%81%AE%E8... You drag the stick around until you find the hotspot (background changes when you're close). Then, once you find it you need to drag it back out. The joke is it either tells you how many grams if "ear-shit" you pulled out or you find some random silly item. In the Apple app store screenshots one card shows pulling out a dandelion. Not that even in Japan, some doctors advise you shouldn't do it https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210317/k10012917781000.html https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210317/k10012917781000.ht... --- All that said, my father told me he had a friend that lost hearing in one ear when he had a q-tip in and his wife bumped his elbow. I have no idea if that was true but it stuck with me and I although I use q-tips to clean my ears I stop if there is anyone in the same room.
erehweb 4y ago
Randomized control trials are great, and doctors are sometimes wrong, but RCTs are not the only way to reason about things. As a contrast, there are no RCTs about the effects of poking yourself in the eye with a sharp stick, but it's generally agreed to be a bad idea even without this evidence.
addingadimensio 4y ago
I’ve never used a Q-tip. I don’t know why people clean their ears. Some kind of generational trauma brought to us by the Q-tip corporation no doubt. It’s clearly a case of garbage in garbage out
- jjgreen 4y ago
  Me neither, my mother said to me: "never put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow"
- baking 4y ago
  Personal anecdote, but I have a strong feeling that if you never clean your ears, you never feel the need to. But once you start cleaning them, and you feel the difference it becomes something that is hard to stop doing. I wish I had never started.
biggieshellz 4y ago
I had a doc recommend me this instead of a Q-tip: https://ototekloop.com/ https://ototekloop.com/ Works great, and the guard keeps you from pushing it in too far and damaging your eardrum.
helmsb 4y ago
I always assumed that the reason that the guidance was against using Q-Tips to clean your ears was one of legal exposure for the cases where there is a problem.
kgbcia 4y ago
not a doctor, but i noticed an increase in calcium leads to an increase in air wax production
vl 4y ago
PSA: they sell Ear Wax Removal Kits which contain bottle of diluted peroxide and washer bulb. You put liquid in your ear and wait for it to soften wax for the few minutes. Then you turn over so the ear is facing down and use washer bulb with water to wash it out. You can wash out most plugs like this without going to the doctor. Also they sell bluetooth ear cameras on Amazon so you can take a look inside to see if it requires additional cleaning.
- throwawaydad12 4y ago
  This is what I do. Whether genetics or what, my ears get stopped to the point of deafness once or twice a year. Tried cleaning them out with just water and ended up with an ear infection. It's excruciating. Now: Use Debrox (etc) following directions. Several applications of the liquid over a day or two. But most importantly, flush with bulb with very warm water (as hot as you can stand). Repeat, over and over. Once you start, don't stop, because you won't be able to fully dry your ear canal until you get all of the wax out. Water means infection. Make sure everything is very clean throughout the procedure. Do it over a stopped sink or bowl, so that you can observe what's coming out. After it's done, dry completely. I use the twisted end of a tissue, etc., to sop up most of the water. Then blow warm air into my ear for several minutes. No problems since I learned this approach.
  - lstodd 4y ago
    Cheap solution: lots of warmed to ~40C 0.05% Chlorhexidine. Idk, but I bet it's cheaper than that Debrox thing, and almost nil chance of infection.
    - tkzed49 4y ago
      That seems completely different—the active ingredient in debrox is peroxide, which foams up and in theory loosens the earwax (a cerumenolytic). If you want to be cheap use diluted hydrogen peroxide. But there seems to be mixed evidence as to whether it's any better than distilled water.
rasengan0 4y ago
I agree with the author, "you shouldn’t listen to me over actual doctors" The article completely misses the medicolegal aspect of do no harm. Not sure why people would risk safeguarding one of their main senses in name of "There’s Basically No Evidence For This" Ignorant is, as ignorant does. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Has anyone seen blood leaking out of the ear when the crochet hook was retracted? How about stench of pus and dealing with infection from toothpicks, q-tips, bobby hairpins and other assorted instruments. Doctors and other providers see this more frequently than probably most HN readers. As a former ex-NP student, I know syringe irrigation works, the patient was profusely 'life altering' thankful with a souvenir chunk of cerumen to prove it. I really believe it takes real world experience, personal or clinical to provide evidence of outcomes, until then Dr. Google, like talk is cheap. OR dismiss clinical experience, keep on with the internet home remedies and support your local EENTs to clean up the mess :-)
post_break 4y ago
This is gross but I wish I could clear my ear wax like blowing my nose. I make way too much ear wax and hate it. I have a camera that connects to my phone for clearing it out. Wish I didn't make so much.
holler 4y ago
Funny I just had the thought this morning that the common held view of q-tips being bad feels bogus. I couldn't imagine not using them as after a day or two my ears start to feel noticeably clogged. My strategy is to twirl the q-tip around the outer edge of the inner ear, gently moving it further up a tad. It seems to work well.
entropicgravity 4y ago
I agree that q-tips are next to useless but, there's a much better solution. In Japan, instead of q-tips, they use little (very little) bamboo spoons that are super effective at scooping out ear wax. They are about no more prone to mistakes than q-tips. Check out the Japanese specialty store near you, you'll never go back to q-tips.
dhunter_mn 4y ago
I wear hearing aids, so I use q-tips every day after I shower to dry and clean my outer ear. Never had any problem with wax compaction, but I have scratched my ear canal which resulted in an infection a couple of times. You have to be gentle, don't grind away like you're brushing your teeth in a big hurry.

74 points by luu 4y ago

I stopped doing it not because of real or imagined wax impaction, but because I had been doing it exactly the same way forever and one day it actually did perforate my eardrum. I guess my luck finally ran out. Now that's healed and I don't feel it's worth the risk to start again.

chasingthewind 4y ago
What was that experience like? Did it hurt? How did they treat it?
- frou_dh 4y ago
  It was actually a very uncomplicated process. Not much pain. I significantly lost hearing in that ear immediately. There was not really any way to treat it apart from waiting for it to heal itself, which it did after about 4 weeks. Hard to tell whether it's truly as good as new though.
  - angry_octet 4y ago
    If you've only done it once and you're not too old it should be fine. But I would be careful flying with a blocked nose or doing any diving. Depends on how big your eustachian tubes are.
branon 4y ago
Ah, damn. This sounds a lot like me except I haven't had my day of reckoning yet. I really don't stick 'em all that far in there, though...

Arrath 4y ago

I often spend entire shifts with foam ear plugs in, they fairly regularly come out with some earwax on them. I found my replacement for q-tips, with no danger of perforating my eardrum!

ollo 4y ago
don't the ear plugs push the ear wax in?
- bjelkeman-again 4y ago
  They can do. So a earwax remover (drops) is good to use from time to time. I use in ear protection from loud sounds (my rock band).

SaberTail 4y ago

My anecdote is that I've tried to clear out wax with a Q-tip only to "clog" the ear. I could still hear a little out of the affected ear, and it wasn't painful, but it was very annoying. The only thing that eventually fixed it was flushing the ear with lots of warm water to get the wax plug out.

LightG 4y ago

Personal experience of someone who previously had a lot of trouble with wax (due to narrow tubes I'm told). 1)Normal soapy water around the ears during daily shower. Not in the ear. 2) Let the inner ear clean itself via natural oils. 3) Annual microsuction if needed.

number6 4y ago

My wife had to go to the doctor to get some cotton removed cause she was using qtips

Lendal 4y ago
Me too. This article is missing one obvious detail. If you rub a Qtip back and forth against your skin, you will find that cotton fibers rub off. It doesn't take much to imagine this same phenomenon is also happening inside your ear canal when you rub the Qtip in there. When it does, those fibers stay inside there, collecting oil and dirt, leading to more earwax build-up, leading to more Qtips, leading to even more cotton fibers, etc. It's just a really bad solution to the problem. You don't need a study for something you can just observe first-hand yourself. They do make plastic earwax cleaners that don't leave any debris inside your ears when used. Roughly shaped like a Qtip but without the cotton. Pretty cheap and also reusable, unlike Qtips. Available at any local pharmacy.

agolio 4y ago

Only tangentially related, non-scientific, probably not interesting to anyone else comment checking in. My puppy always licks the inside of my ears and since then they are super clean all the time (like no external earwax at all) but I am scared of getting an ear infection.

the_gipsy 4y ago
Can't you just clean the outside yourself, like in the shower? You can easily get infections for example from seawater residue.
angry_octet 4y ago
You could lose your ear and a chunk of your face. Doesn't seem worth it. https://ejcrim.com/index.php/EJCRIM/article/download/1268/1808?inline=1 https://ejcrim.com/index.php/EJCRIM/article/download/1268/18...

lovehashbrowns 4y ago

I stopped using q-tips because after like 20-something years of using q-tips safely, it took one bad left-handed cleaning job to hurt my ear. I think I mostly got lucky. I went in too far with my non-dominant hand and caused some sharp pain on what is probably my ear drum. No hearing loss, nothing major, but it was pretty painful and more than enough to get me to stop. I was just like the author! I was like there's no way this can be bad as long as you don't go in too deep.

icpmacdo 4y ago
This is quite salient, two days ago I did the same thing. Left non dominate hand with a q-tip, no pain at all though really. I don't think i went too overly deep but the entire left side of my has felt blocked since, this article is making me think maybe I pushed the wax deeper and might have a blockage? Is this something you would consult a doctor over or does it usually work itself out?
- a_t48 4y ago
  Your local drug store has cleaner that can sit in your ear and dissolve ear wax, along with a special ear pick. In my experience it works well, especially if you have someone to do the awkward scooping after. YMMV if it works better than hydrogen peroxide and a qtip
- lovehashbrowns 4y ago
  It’s really not a big deal! It might work itself out over time but you can get one of those ear wax cleaning kits. In my uneducated experience, the formulation they come with doesn’t help a whole ton, but the key part is the rubber bulb you get to flush water into your ear. You’re gonna want to follow the kit’s instructions around safety, but it’s overall pretty easy and doesn’t take too long to clear up some fairly significant blockage.
snarfy 4y ago
When I was in school, there was a guy with a large over-ear hearing aid in one of his ears. I asked him about it. He said he was cleaning his ear one day with a q-tip. His sister snuck up behind him with an aired up paper bag and popped it. "BOO!" He jumped and smashed the q-tip into his ear.

noasaservice 4y ago

Damn that's a user hostile site. Ublock origin blocking to the rescue.

jmull 4y ago

> you shouldn’t listen to me over actual doctors This part is right. Everyone should stop reading right there.

earboi 4y ago

I am a primary care physician, so ear wax is something I deal with every day (or every other day). Medical advice is tailored to meet the needs of everyone, erring on the side of extreme caution. Do I trust myself to insert a q-tip into my ear and not rupture my eardrum? Yes. Do I trust most highly intelligent hacker news readers? Probably. Do I trust the bottom 10% of the general population (in IQ, dexterity, and good judgement)? Hell no. Our medical system is a "no-miss" culture that has extreme life altering penalties for physicians that give medical care that leads to harm. Is rupturing an ear drum a big deal? I'm not so sure, but I bet you can find a plaintiff's attorney hungry enough to sue over it. Don't go to medical school.

philosopher1234 4y ago
Choosing to trust everything you wrote here based on the devotion displayed in your username
nixpulvis 4y ago
IDK why, but I really needed to hear this right now. (I guess it's a good thing I keep my ears clean)
AlbertCory 4y ago
My PCP cleaned out one of my ears recently. I'd trust her more than I'd trust myself. Although I can criticize lawyers for saying this, "out of an abundance of caution" is a totally reasonable thing for a PCP to say. Thanks, Doc.
rawgabbit 4y ago
I noticed there are several medical doctors on Hacker News which is interesting. My son is currently attending college in the USA. His dream is to get accepted into medical school. When you posted "Don't go to medical school.", are you being sarcastic? Or are you serious. Is medical school a dead end in 2022 in the USA?
- bombcar 4y ago
  I would find some doctors you can trust to speak honestly off the record, and talk with them.

gwbas1c 4y ago

Once, after watching a video of a giant earwax plug being removed, I realized I probably had quite a bit stuck in there. I very gently slid a q-tip into my ear, and all it did was push some earwax to a funny angle in my ear canal. It was quite painful. I went to the doctor and they used pressurized water to get the earwax out. Unfortunately, they dumped the bin before I could see how much came out.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
bcrosby95 4y ago
I had a plugged ear and had to get it cleaned out by a doctor. It was problematic for about 5 years, but I could just push on my ear a bit and hear again. Eventually, that stopped working. When the doctor cleaned it out, a chunk of earwax about the size of a cigarette butt came out.
- prometheus76 4y ago
  I use a waterpik with warm water on the lowest setting, and it's like magic for the problem you had.
mpol 4y ago
I used a few drops of paraffine oil in both ears, then in the next few weeks some small pieces of dark and hard earwax came out. I am using q-tips too and had slight worries about pushing wax into my ears. Turned out to be rightful worries somewhat.

swader999 4y ago

My biggest issue is ear hair that grows around and around and never comes close enough to pluck out. Drives me nuts. I know this because I've stuck a camera thing down there and have seen it. I suppose I need to see a specialist. This wasn't in the getting old brochure.

fmajid 4y ago
Or worse, touches your eardrum and makes scratchy sounds when you chew. I had to have an ENT remove one 30 years ago.
Legogris 4y ago
Why is it a problem?
- swader999 4y ago
  It constantly tickles.
  - Legogris 4y ago
    Damn, that does sound terrible.

jollyllama 4y ago

The thing that's lost on a lot of the discussion around earwax is that your ears will generally adjust to producing the right amount of wax, taking into account what activities you do. In the spring, when I first swim, I won't have enough earwax because I haven't been swimming, and water gets stuck in my ears. By the summer, they adjust, and water stays out of my ears. In the fall, when I stop swimming, I find that I now have too much ear wax and it feels uncomfortable. It tapers off in the winter back to the proper level. Note also that if I use q-tips, this will also increase ear wax production, but will remove the protection it provides, and water will get stuck in my ears until it builds up again. I've also found that using earplugs will increase production, as will drinking alcohol.

halpmeh 4y ago
Yes, this one surprising realization I came to during the pandemic. I habitually cleaned my ears before leaving for the office. When I needed to WFH, I stopped cleaning them because the habit had been disrupted. There was a lot of wax at first, but now I have just the right amount and never need to clear them.
- RC_ITR 4y ago
  The secret behind grooming (I've made it, I've finally discussed proper hygiene on HN and its contextually relevant) is that it boils down to 3 types: 1) Preference/Social - This is primarily smell and appearance-based. For example, you won't see medical problems from irregular bathing (as long as you keep wounds/orifices clean), not cutting your hair, or not wearing deodorant, society just politely asks that you do those things. 2) Modern-life Adaptions- This is things like tooth brushing. We need to do it more because of our modern diets than anything else. 3) Comfort - This is things like cutting your finder nails so you don't scratch yourself. Using this framework, you realize you can get away with not doing a lot: pretty much everything except 2 is medically optional (especially after you let your body get back to homeostasis) - but keep in mind just because you and those close to you can't smell you, that does not mean strangers can't smell you. Ear cleaning, FWIW falls mostly in 3, but maybe in extreme cases it becomes 1; if you're swimming a lot maybe it's a 2, but rarely is that true. But also, given the above, please be considerate of others and do as much 1 as you're capable of.

gernb 4y ago

The advice being complained about also seems to leave out things like, there are 2 basic kinds of earwax, wet & dry https://www.google.com/search?q=kinds+of+earwax https://www.google.com/search?q=kinds+of+earwax they require different care Western medicine says "don't put q-tips in your ears". Japanese (and Chinese?) seem very different. You can find these at any medicine store in Japan, possibly even every convenience store https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E8%80%B3%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8D/b?ie=UTF8&node=169807011 https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E8%80%B3%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8D/b?ie=UT... they look far more dangerous than a q-tip Here's a specialty shop https://mimikakitei.com/ https://mimikakitei.com/ They also have sticks with cotton on them and one of the first VR experiences I ever had was of having your ears cleaned. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dlsite.nagomimi&hl=ja&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dlsite.nag... also, also, here's a funny silly game about cleaning your ears https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.liica.mimikaki&hl=ja&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.liica.mi... https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/%E6%AF%8E%E6%97%A5%E3%81%AE%E8%80%B3%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8D/id561918643 https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/%E6%AF%8E%E6%97%A5%E3%81%AE%E8... You drag the stick around until you find the hotspot (background changes when you're close). Then, once you find it you need to drag it back out. The joke is it either tells you how many grams if "ear-shit" you pulled out or you find some random silly item. In the Apple app store screenshots one card shows pulling out a dandelion. Not that even in Japan, some doctors advise you shouldn't do it https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210317/k10012917781000.html https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210317/k10012917781000.ht... --- All that said, my father told me he had a friend that lost hearing in one ear when he had a q-tip in and his wife bumped his elbow. I have no idea if that was true but it stuck with me and I although I use q-tips to clean my ears I stop if there is anyone in the same room.

erehweb 4y ago

Randomized control trials are great, and doctors are sometimes wrong, but RCTs are not the only way to reason about things. As a contrast, there are no RCTs about the effects of poking yourself in the eye with a sharp stick, but it's generally agreed to be a bad idea even without this evidence.

addingadimensio 4y ago

I’ve never used a Q-tip. I don’t know why people clean their ears. Some kind of generational trauma brought to us by the Q-tip corporation no doubt. It’s clearly a case of garbage in garbage out

jjgreen 4y ago
Me neither, my mother said to me: "never put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow"
baking 4y ago
Personal anecdote, but I have a strong feeling that if you never clean your ears, you never feel the need to. But once you start cleaning them, and you feel the difference it becomes something that is hard to stop doing. I wish I had never started.

biggieshellz 4y ago

I had a doc recommend me this instead of a Q-tip: https://ototekloop.com/ https://ototekloop.com/ Works great, and the guard keeps you from pushing it in too far and damaging your eardrum.

helmsb 4y ago

I always assumed that the reason that the guidance was against using Q-Tips to clean your ears was one of legal exposure for the cases where there is a problem.

kgbcia 4y ago

not a doctor, but i noticed an increase in calcium leads to an increase in air wax production

vl 4y ago

PSA: they sell Ear Wax Removal Kits which contain bottle of diluted peroxide and washer bulb. You put liquid in your ear and wait for it to soften wax for the few minutes. Then you turn over so the ear is facing down and use washer bulb with water to wash it out. You can wash out most plugs like this without going to the doctor. Also they sell bluetooth ear cameras on Amazon so you can take a look inside to see if it requires additional cleaning.

throwawaydad12 4y ago
This is what I do. Whether genetics or what, my ears get stopped to the point of deafness once or twice a year. Tried cleaning them out with just water and ended up with an ear infection. It's excruciating. Now: Use Debrox (etc) following directions. Several applications of the liquid over a day or two. But most importantly, flush with bulb with very warm water (as hot as you can stand). Repeat, over and over. Once you start, don't stop, because you won't be able to fully dry your ear canal until you get all of the wax out. Water means infection. Make sure everything is very clean throughout the procedure. Do it over a stopped sink or bowl, so that you can observe what's coming out. After it's done, dry completely. I use the twisted end of a tissue, etc., to sop up most of the water. Then blow warm air into my ear for several minutes. No problems since I learned this approach.
- lstodd 4y ago
  Cheap solution: lots of warmed to ~40C 0.05% Chlorhexidine. Idk, but I bet it's cheaper than that Debrox thing, and almost nil chance of infection.
  - tkzed49 4y ago
    That seems completely different—the active ingredient in debrox is peroxide, which foams up and in theory loosens the earwax (a cerumenolytic). If you want to be cheap use diluted hydrogen peroxide. But there seems to be mixed evidence as to whether it's any better than distilled water.

rasengan0 4y ago

I agree with the author, "you shouldn’t listen to me over actual doctors" The article completely misses the medicolegal aspect of do no harm. Not sure why people would risk safeguarding one of their main senses in name of "There’s Basically No Evidence For This" Ignorant is, as ignorant does. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Has anyone seen blood leaking out of the ear when the crochet hook was retracted? How about stench of pus and dealing with infection from toothpicks, q-tips, bobby hairpins and other assorted instruments. Doctors and other providers see this more frequently than probably most HN readers. As a former ex-NP student, I know syringe irrigation works, the patient was profusely 'life altering' thankful with a souvenir chunk of cerumen to prove it. I really believe it takes real world experience, personal or clinical to provide evidence of outcomes, until then Dr. Google, like talk is cheap. OR dismiss clinical experience, keep on with the internet home remedies and support your local EENTs to clean up the mess :-)

post_break 4y ago

This is gross but I wish I could clear my ear wax like blowing my nose. I make way too much ear wax and hate it. I have a camera that connects to my phone for clearing it out. Wish I didn't make so much.

holler 4y ago

Funny I just had the thought this morning that the common held view of q-tips being bad feels bogus. I couldn't imagine not using them as after a day or two my ears start to feel noticeably clogged. My strategy is to twirl the q-tip around the outer edge of the inner ear, gently moving it further up a tad. It seems to work well.

entropicgravity 4y ago

I agree that q-tips are next to useless but, there's a much better solution. In Japan, instead of q-tips, they use little (very little) bamboo spoons that are super effective at scooping out ear wax. They are about no more prone to mistakes than q-tips. Check out the Japanese specialty store near you, you'll never go back to q-tips.

dhunter_mn 4y ago

I wear hearing aids, so I use q-tips every day after I shower to dry and clean my outer ear. Never had any problem with wax compaction, but I have scratched my ear canal which resulted in an infection a couple of times. You have to be gentle, don't grind away like you're brushing your teeth in a big hurry.