Q-tips will never actually get rid of your earwax

q tip cotton swabsTamaki Sono/Flickr

The INSIDER Summary:

  • Using Q-tips to remove earwax is pointless, Dr. Mark Vaughan told INSIDER. 
  • It’s because Q-tips are too big to effectively scoop anything out of your ear canal.

Dr. Mark Vaughan is an earwax whisperer.

Of course, he treats all types of conditions as medical director of Auburn Medical Group , a family primary care practice in California, but when it comes to teasing hardened hunks of earwax out of people’s ears, he’s tough to beat. For proof, see Vaughan’s YouTube channel, where his gross but satisfying videos of wax extraction have netted millions of views. 

INSIDER recently spoke with Vaughan and learned that using Q-tips to scrape out earwax — even though it feels good — is never going to be effective. The reason why is simple. 

“The diameter of the Q-tip is greater than half the diameter of the ear canal,” Vaughan told INSIDER. “So any way you stick that in there, there’s a portion of the wax that you can’t get around. All you can do is push it in.”

It’s like trying to clear a clogged pipe using a blunt object that’s almost as big as the pipe itself. It’s just not physically possible to scoop stuff out.

And if you’re not careful, Vaughan explained, there’s a chance that you could damage your ear canal. “That’s the most dangerous risk” of using Q-tips, he said. 

So what should you do to get rid of earwax?

First, don’t even think about trendy “ear candling” procedures: There’s a risk that you could get hot candle wax stuck to your eardrum. (Fun!)

The truth is that unless wax is fully blocking your ear canal or causing unpleasant symptoms, you don’t need to get rid of it. Actually, it’s there for a reason: It acts and an antibacterial and antifungal and helps carry dead skin cells out of your ear.

But if you really think you have a massive wax blockage that’s affecting your hearing, see your doctor for assistance. “You can’t tell by feel” whether your ear canal is blocked, Vaughan said, but a doctor has the right tools on-hand to get visual confirmation.

NOW WATCH: An ear doctor explains the dangers of this trendy way to remove earwax — and no, it’s not Q-tips

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Post Author: martin

Martin is an enthusiastic programmer, a webdeveloper and a young entrepreneur. He is intereted into computers for a long time. In the age of 10 he has programmed his first website and since then he has been working on web technologies until now. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of BriefNews.eu and PCHealthBoost.info Online Magazines. His colleagues appreciate him as a passionate workhorse, a fan of new technologies, an eternal optimist and a dreamer, but especially the soul of the team for whom he can do anything in the world.

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