This is for you if you are a fan of
cotton buds. Anytime you feel an urge to poke your ear with a cotton
bud, understand that more people are injured by it than razor blades.
According to recent research, 36 per cent of adults use cotton buds to
clean their ears, and most of them know that it is potentially
dangerous. Nobody should put anything smaller than a finger inside their
ear.
While the use of cotton buds does not always lead to severe problems, regular use can lead to skin irritation, infection and permanent hearing loss.
In most circumstances, wax could
actually benefit your ears. How? According to a private nose and ear
consultant, Dr. Remy Byrant, It causes foreign bodies
to adhere to it, preventing them from going further into the ear, and
it has anti-bacterial properties. Removing it is like taking the wax off
the surface of polished wooden furniture. It makes the delicate underlying skin of the ear more susceptible to infection, Bryant says.
Adding that wax consists of a mixture of exfoliated skin, secretions and is produced in the outer third of the ear canal,
Bryant proffers that some people produce large amounts, which can
affect hearing, especially if the wax becomes waterlogged and expands
after swimming.
If excessive ear wax tends to run in families, it is best treated by having the ears syringed with warm water
under medical supervision. Removing wax with a bud can leave the skin
of the ear feeling irritated. This leads people to twiddle about even
more, so they continue to fiddle with the ear until injury is
sustained……
