Question about Q-Tips and ear cleaning

[supersizeme]

Get ready for the most controversial post in EF history.

My gf was getting on me yesterday for cleaning out my ears with q-tips. She tells me that I'm not supposed to clean out the actual canal but rather just around the ear lobes and stuff. Then I got a brief lecture on the benefits of ear wax and how you're not supposed to clean it out because it's there to filter nastiness from getting in your ear. I try to counter with the fact that eventually that trapped-by-wax nastiness needs to be cleaned out, but she tells me that this happens naturally during showers. I'm used to cleaning my canals out every morning after my shower and can't stand to have that slimy feeling in my ear canal. Is she right? Am I the only misinformed person on the planet that's digging into my canal when I'm not supposed to? Next thing you know someone's gonna come along and tell me that it's bad to eat the ear wax, too.

 

[CipherLock]

Bad to put stuff INTO your ears, I've known this since Sesame Street.

 

[Raina]

Q-tips are actually not the best idea as they just tend to push wax further in towards the tympanic membrane. If you get your ears cleaned at the dr's office they usually do it with a tool shaped more like a bobby pin than a q-tip.

There's nothing wrong with cleaning your ear wax out....but q-tips are evil.

 

[WODIN]

I like soaking the q-tips in alchohol and then applying them to my crust mongers.

 

[supersizeme]

I don't see how I'm pushing wax further into my ear though because I just stick it in there and swab in a circular motion. It's not like I'm doing a piston-like motion in my ear.

This whole conversation started when I was complaining about for the past week having what feels like water stuck in my ear. Like whenever I yawn or have one of those weird internal burps that doesn't come out, I feel the water-shifting noise in my ear. She told me it was probably swimmer's ear. I have no idea how I could've gotten this though. I mean I sleep with one of those liquid oxygen helmets on like from the movie Sphere, but it's never caused this before.

 

[beastboy]

I have a phobia...seriously....I freak if anything is in my ear, besides my own finger and a wash cloth. I think I would pass out if a Q-tip came near my ear.

 

[danielson]

most ENT guys say the smallest thing you should put into your ear is your elbow. apparently your ear wax is expelled in a spiral fashion and like raina said cleaning it out with a 'cotton wool bud' can push the wax further in

that said i cant stand that waxy feeling too, and doubt ur girl likes kissing waxy ears so i just make sure i dont entwer the ear canal, clean the whole outer part and hopes thats enough

 

[WODIN]

Sharon Stone is a girl i'd ear fuck till christmas.

 

[alien amp pharm]

SSME I've always used Q-tips inthe circular motion too.
Last doctor visit, he said not to use Q-tips at all. (except for exterior)

Kinda makes you wonder when you see these people with wax practically falling out of their ears though

 

[gonelifting]

I heard what your girlfriend said to be true. Also a ENT doc told me not to do it. "Just clean the outside" The doc said to have my ears cleaned at his office every 2 years from the inside.

That`s been my experience.