I’ve never seen a hospitalization from this.

The Journal of Pediatrics recently published a paper on this. They estimate that between 1990 and 2010 “more than 263000” children were seen at the ER with injuries caused by qtips.

http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(17)30461-4/fulltext

Oh, sure. A lot of ER visits. I was ATA this question and I was just saying that in my 27 years of hospital experience I’ve never seen an inpatient admission from this.

@Rarebear: What is ATA?

Sorry, Asked to answer. I suppose I should have written A2A

According to this article, the big danger of using Q-Tips in your ears is hearing loss. The Q-Tips package contains a warning not to use them in ear canals.

@LostInParadise And yet, that’s what they do best.

of course the q-tip folks have better sense than to garner statistics on the matter.

I would go insane if I couldn’t put q-tips in my ears, especially my left ear. My left ear constantly bothers me.

It seems using q-tips can pack the wax in worse, and you will here people say just leave your ears alone and the wax takes care of itself naturally. Well, I’m here to tell you I have one ear that is much much more trouble, and yes I believe the q-tip might make it worse overall, but I don’t believe it is the underlying cause, because it’s not like I mostly tend to my left ear because it’s there. It’s because it drives me crazy.

I’m shocked to see there are so many injuries from q-tips to be honest. I didn’t doubt some happen, but I did doubt the number was very big.

I was just at the GP, who looked in my ears just because I was there. She said I didn’t have any wax. I don’t believe it. Isn’t there always some wax?? Even if a doctor cleans out wax, isn’t some wax left behind? I had gone to three ENT’s one year for some discomfort I was having, they didn’t help me at all and didn’t mention wax in my ear.

A year later I had my accident, wound up with severe vertigo from the accident, and wound up going to the dizzy doctor to try to clear what was still left after initial treatment at the hospital. This ENT decided I had wax in my ear (it had zero to do with the dizzy, it was just something during my exam and I mentioned my ear discomfort) and he took out wax and said it was impacted, or some similar word. I’d bet I have that right now, I do think using Q-tips probably adds to that problem, and why the heck don’t other doctors see it?

I need to go to an ENT to get my ear cleaned out I think. My ear has been bothering me a lot again. I hope whoever I go to see helps me. Ugh. Why do I always feel like going to a doctor is a crap shoot. Literally, the odds are against me, and I usually lose money.

@JLeslie “Isn’t there always some wax??”
No. I often see ears with no wax. They’re self cleaning. You shouldn’t put a q-tip in there.

^^As I said, I would go insane if I don’t use q-tips. I’m not advising anyone to do it though, I know there are risks. I take the risk so I can sleep, or for waking hours when it is bothering me. It’s my left ear 90% of the time. I can go many months without my right ear bothering me.

Interesting that there can be no wax. Thanks for responding to that. I still have my doubts there was no wax in my ear, but I don’t think the doctor was lying. What color is the ear canal? The wax they once removed from my ear was along the top. Stuck up there. I do tend to use the Q-tip to press up against there. I don’t think it ever would have come out on its own.

Try a drop or two of olive oil for a week or two if you have itchy waxy ears. This is recommended and worked for me. I had a bad q tip habit and stopped about 18 months ago. My ears seem to have lots of dry skin rather than the wax being the problem.

@JLeslie You probably have a little eczema inside your ear canal and you are exacerbating it in an itch-scratch cycle.

@Stinley Thanks. I just might try that.

@Rarebear No doctor ever said that to me before, about the eczema. That’s interesting. I’ve never had eczema I don’t think, is that an actual rash of some sort? I don’t have anything like that, but I am dry all over. I’ve always been dry. It’s worse when my thyroid isn’t medicated well. I wonder why three ENT’s and two GP’s that I’ve asked about it never suggested it. I’m not questioning your suggestion, I’m questioning their competence.

When wax is removed I do get relief. That doctor that cleared a bunch of wax cured me of a problem I had for over a year. When I get rid of wax with the q-tip I also get a lot of relief.

Just an idea. Constantly shoving a q-tip up your ear will cause irritation, which will make it itch, which will cause you to shove a q-tip up your ear. It’s a vicious cycle.

More often than not people who are wax formers who use a q-tip end up just shoving the wax farther back in the ear canal and it makes it harder to remove.

^^Again, it’s just one ear. I would think that proves I’m not wanting to just put Q-tips in my ears all the time. One ear has some sort of “problem” whatever it is. I know people like to believe the Q-tip is the chicken before the egg, but I wouldn’t put any Q-tips in my ear if it wasn’t driving me crazy.

I don’t doubt the wax is made into a worse problem using Q-tips, but according to my doctor a few weeks ago there is no wax. I know I said I question that, but you concurred I could eaily have no wax. So what wax am I pushing around then?

Sigh. I didn’t say you were pushing down wax. I said, “More often than not people who are wax formers who use a q-tip end up just shoving the wax farther back in the ear canal and it makes it harder to remove.”

Never mind. I should know better than this.

@Rarebear I know you didn’t say I was pushing around wax.

I really do appreciate your help.