Are Q-Tips Actually Dangerous?

[vaseto99]

Hello I've been using q-tips after every shower since I remember...

I usually thought they were safe but now I saw some posts that say they may be potentially dangerous.

I usually don't go too deep with them but I use them pretty often...

I also clean my ears in every shower I take, not sure how safe this is either.

 

[Sven]

Hello I've been using q-tips after every shower since I remember...

I usually thought they were safe but now I saw some posts that say they may be potentially dangerous.

I usually don't go too deep with them but I use them pretty often...

I think they're only dangerous if you should come too close to the eardrum. However, there is a saying in Sweden that goes "Don't put anything in your ears that's smaller than your elbow". :

 

[vaseto99]

I think they're only dangerous if you should come too close to the eardrum. However, there is a saying in Sweden that goes "Don't put anything in your ears that's smaller than your elbow". :

I usually don't put them deep at all but since literally everyone I know cleans their ears with this after a shower I haven't thought they might have been dangerous

 

[dpdx]

YES

 

[GregCA]

I usually don't put them deep at all but since literally everyone I know cleans their ears with this after a shower I haven't thought they might have been dangerous

You don't need to do anything to clean your ears: they are self cleaning. Don't put anything in there, you will likely increase the chance of compacting wax against your ear drum and injuring your ear canal or ear drum.

 

[Tinniger]

A reasonable and safe alternative are baby-Q-tips...

 

[Localboy]

 

[Luman]

I think they're only dangerous if you should come too close to the eardrum. However, there is a saying in Sweden that goes "Don't put anything in your ears that's smaller than your elbow". :

When I was a kid (USA), my mother told us "If you want to put something in your ears, then put your elbow in".

 

[jimH]

@vaseto99

If you're going to continue to use them, don't ever walk around while doing so. Years ago, a girlfriend of mine was using one in her ears after taking a shower. When the phone rang, she walked out of the bathroom to answer it. While walking through the door way her elbow struck the door jam which shoved the Q-tip in further than she had intended. Although, she didn't puncture her eardrum, it did hurt her. She was lucky because it could have.

 

[Tinniger]

I am astonished that tinnitus sufferers who attribute their suffering to noise are now afraid of Q-tips as well...

 

[Starthrower]

Oh should I admit to the unthinkable? I carefully use q-tips in my ears.

 

[Tinker Bell]

Oh should I admit to the unthinkable? I carefully use q-tips in my ears.

Me too . . .

 

[Dana]

It happened to me twice to have to have to schedule an appointment with an ENT because of terrible tinnitus worsening after carefully (i am not ironic) using q-tip. To a healthy person it may not matter so much impacting the ear wax toward the eardrum, but for us, tinnitus sufferers, even a small obstruction of the ear canal makes a huge difference. The tinnitus got so loud after using them that i was thinking at suicide if the problem does not get fixed somehow. Luckily after cleaning the wax by suction with a machine that had a tip with a smaller diameter (i had terrible experiences with suctioning with tips with a larger diameter, very loud and painful), removing that wax reduced the tinnitus.
I was told to clean the ear canal only with the corner of a thinner towel to absorb the water.
My advice is to not use Q-tips! They are made only to clean the ear lobe after a shower/bath, but who can resist the temptation to stick them inside the ear canal, especially if the hearing became muffled because of the water that remained inside? No Q-tips in the ear canal for T sufferers, i would say.

 

[Dij111]

I was an obsessive q-tip user before T (feels so good ).

Don't do it please, only bad things can come out of it - ears can clean themselves and you can just lightly scrub the opening of the ear in the shower, don't insert water into the ear canal.

 

[BrownieBoy]

I'm terrified of compacting wax since it has happened to me twice in my lifetime before T. That being said, I am guilty of using them before I go out sometimes if I know I'm going to be putting in ear plugs. My reasoning is that I want to get whatever I can out before I shove foam into my ear holes. Any advice other than over the ear protection?

 

[Agrajag364]

Hello I've been using q-tips after every shower since I remember...

I usually thought they were safe but now I saw some posts that say they may be potentially dangerous.

I usually don't go too deep with them but I use them pretty often...

I also clean my ears in every shower I take, not sure how safe this is either.

My tinnitus was started by a q tip or a cotton bud as we call them here. I went deaf in one ear after using one for an extended period of time as my ear was itchy. The deafness was misdiagnosed for several months but it turned out to be a simple wax impaction. When it was finally diagnosed I remembered using the q tip in that way the morning I lost hearing in that ear. After several months of deafness due to the wax I got tinnitus. When the wax was finally removed my excellent hearing was restored but the damn tinnitus remained, only in that ear.

So don't use q tips!!!!! The problem is wax is normally only produced in the outer third of the ear and cotton bud q tips help to jam it up against the eardrum increasing the chance of an earwax impaction

Sometimes I see cotton buds and think I can believe something so seemingly innocuous caused something as horrible as tinnitus they may one day result in my death!

Stay away from the little bastards!!!!!!!

 

[Tinker Bell]

So don't use q tips!!!!! The problem is wax is normally only produced in the outer third of the ear and cotton bud q tips help to jam it up against the eardrum increasing the chance of an earwax impaction

Sometimes I see cotton buds and think I can believe something so seemingly innocuous caused something as horrible as tinnitus they may one day result in my death!

Stay away from the little bastards!!!!!!!

Don't ear plugs do the exact same thing? Personally I find earplugs are inserted far deeper in my ear canal than I would ever put a q tip.

 

[Bam]

Stay away from the little bastards!!!!!!!

Too late for this guy.....

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.707279

 

[Red]

I am astonished that tinnitus sufferers who attribute their suffering to noise are now afraid of Q-tips as well...

There is no advantage to using Q-tips. The ear is self cleaning. If you have earwax problems, debrox or manual ear cleaning is safer. I am astonished myself...that people actually use them. The cotton tips are huge and terrible at grabbing wax. Many things tinnitus sufferers fear have no medical evidence either way but using q-tips is actually ill advised by doctors and medically proven to increase the risk of actually injuring your eardrum or making earwax worse.

 

[Agrajag364]

There is no advantage to using Q-tips. The ear is self cleaning. If you have earwax problems, debrox or manual ear cleaning is safer. I am astonished myself...that people actually use them. The cotton tips are huge and terrible at grabbing wax. Many things tinnitus sufferers fear have no medical evidence either way but using q-tips is actually ill advised by doctors and has a medical precedence for actually injuring your eardrum or making earwax worse.

It was cos my ears got so itchy. They still do and I have to run away from the cotton buds. I can't talk my partner out of using them again cos of itchy ear thing

 

[Agrajag364]

I do find it odd than one of the few companies who make them in the uk are Johnson and Johnson. J and J could just possibly be less concerned about their harmful effects than other companies are...google talc, hip and mesh implants

 

[Tinniger]

In my opinion, the fact that there should be a connection between noise-induced tinnitus and the use of Q-tips is rather an indication of paranoia.

 

[coffee_girl]

I've used qtips since I was old enough to be able to do it myself. I never had problems from them. I went one month once without using qtips and my ears felt awful: water clog, full ears, weird sensation. I use qtips twice a week now. I don't ever have wax problems either, maybe the hot water in the shower melts my ear wax which then gets removed by the qtips?

 

[JohnAdams]

Well yeah...

 

[Red]

In my opinion, the fact that there should be a connection between noise-induced tinnitus and the use of Q-tips is rather an indication of paranoia.

There is no connection to noise induced tinnitus and qtips. But there is a connection between tinnitus and eardrum perforations when that qtip accidentally pokes the eardrum too hard. Or when a TT member causes earwax build up by putting too many things in their ears and ends up getting irrigation or microsuction that can worsen T.

Refusing to leave your house is paranoia.
Listening to what doctors advise against isn't.

(Btw: we have had a member here cause a perforation trying to clean his ears out, albeit, not with a qtip. The point remains the same.)

 

[MBH]

I've been using Q tips for my ears like forever, I stopped when I got T, but after a while I went back to using them. Sometimes my T feels better after using qtips.

 

[Agrajag364]

Don't ear plugs do the exact same thing? Personally I find earplugs are inserted far deeper in my ear canal than I would ever put a q tip.

I put cotton buds further than earplugs. Maybe cotton buds are safe if you only stick them a tiny way in. But I wouldn't take risk

 

[Agrajag364]

There is no connection to noise induced tinnitus and qtips. But there is a connection between tinnitus and eardrum perforations when that qtip accidentally pokes the eardrum too hard. Or when a TT member causes earwax build up by putting too many things in their ears and ends up getting irrigation or microsuction that can worsen T.

Refusing to leave your house is paranoia.
Listening to what doctors advise against isn't.

(Btw: we have had a member here cause a perforation trying to clean his ears out, albeit, not with a qtip. The point remains the same.)

I got tinnitus from a q tip-caused wax impaction. Not wax removal.