Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not give up using cotton ear buds?

132 replies

cowsoy · 05/02/2019 07:57

I keep hearing about how cotton buds are really bad for your ears and you shouldn't use them.

I tried to stop the other week and had to give up after a few days when I put some headphones in and the headphones had wax on when I took them out of my ear...

It then took me about 10 cotton buds to get my ears clean again.

Apparently you're just meant to let the wax naturally make its way out of your ears and drip/be pushed out... but I feel like if people look at me from a certain angle they will just see my wax-filled ear canal [sick] and I felt really dirty...

Apparently doctors say you should just wipe the outside of your ear with a flannel but I don't think its enough, people can still see the wax...

OP posts:
MirriVan · 05/02/2019 11:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
cowsoy · 05/02/2019 11:46

I don't know.

I realise there's a risk involved but I have to weigh that up with not having dirty ears, and I think I prefer to take the slight risk.

I also wonder what is happening to the wax in the ears of the people that don't clean them. Are they just not producing any? Is it gradually oozing out? Or is it staying in there for years until it impacts and they too need to go and get it syringed out?

OP posts:
Riotingbananas · 05/02/2019 11:51

To clean their ears Rioting (do try and keep up)

The NICE advice is very clear that you should not put anything in your ears, for any reason. When I worked in ENT, the joke was that the only thing you should put in your right ear was your left elbow. It's jolly good that you haven't injured yourself, but doing it still flies in the face of all expert guidance.

Hoopaloop · 05/02/2019 11:51

Been to ENT twice due to infections caused by poking them in my ears. Have I learned my lesson? No. Just a bit more careful nowadays.

Whatdoesitmatteranyway · 05/02/2019 11:53

To quote Chandler:

"You're supposed to stop with the Q tip when you feel resistance"

I've used mine ever since I had an allergic reaction to detergent aged 19. Everytime I was my hair (daily) I clean them out with a cotton bud.

Haven't had a reaction since.

But then I dont stick them in to the point where I'm butting up against anything.

Not about to stop.

BaaRamU · 05/02/2019 12:01

*It seems 2 camps have emerged:

  1. How could anyone consider cleaning their ears using a cotton bud
  1. How could anyone consider going around with their ears full of wax.*

And camp 3 - who agree with both camps and have given safer alternatives which seem to have been completely ignored. Basically YANBU to want clean ears but YABU to keep using cotton buds to achieve it.

FineWordsForAPorcupine · 05/02/2019 12:01

I also wonder what is happening to the wax in the ears of the people that don't clean them

If you stop poking and scraping at your ears, they will not need to make so much wax. Your poor itchy, sore ears are trying to protect themselves from all that "careful" cleaning!

Ear wax is produced at one end of the ear canal, and is designed to gradually work its way out in a corkscrew motion, aided by the action of your jaws. It takes dust, dead skin and bacteria with it. As it gets closer to the entrance, it dries a little (so it is no longer the gooey orange stuff you feel the need to "clean") and becomes a bit paler and flakier. When it reaches the ear opening, it drops out in small flakes and is usually washed away in the shower, or you can wipe the external ear with cotton wool (I give it a quick go when I've taken off my makeup).

You may sometimes get an itch and find a lump of wax on your finger nail when you wiggle it in there, but generally it isn't "oozing" anywhere and you are allowed to clean your eternal ears, just not poke anything down them.

HoppingPavlova · 05/02/2019 12:10

I also wonder what is happening to the wax in the ears of the people that don't clean them. Are they just not producing any? Is it gradually oozing out? Or is it staying in there for years until it impacts and they too need to go and get it syringed out?

What???? It’s not the drama you are making it out to be. Simply, ear wax is natural, it serves a purpose. If you clean it out constantly your ears go into overdrive to produce more as a protective function. So people who don’t do it won’t have all the wax you are thinking they have.

People naturally produce different softnesses of wax. Some people it is more liquid, some more solid. But pretty much it comes out naturally. Little pieces as you roll over in bed you never notice, bits in the shower as you wash your hair and it comes out with the rest of the water in your ears etc. Only rarely would it be naturally impacted, this generally occurs when sticking ear buds or other implements in your ear.

When one of my kids was quite young (maybe 6yo) they saw an ENT due to having grommets and to make sure ear drums had healed up etc. They had a big piece of wax that had a piece of fungus on it. The ENT said this was because they had a long period of not having any water in their ears from hair washing etc (we had blocked them from water entering due to grommets and healing after grommets). He said he wouldn’t even bother taking it out as the minute they could shower and swim normally it would come out. I checked them myself after a week (I was practicing in A&E at that point) and sure enough no wax at all.

Do you suffer from health anxieties with other things or just ear wax?

badlydrawnperson · 05/02/2019 12:12

I judge people with waxy ears

Christ on a fucking unicycle.

Linglelong · 05/02/2019 12:16

I promised myself I would stop using them after the end of one came off and got stuck in my ear. I went and saw the practice nurse at GP surgery and she sent me to A&E to get it removed Blush

I only lasted a few weeks and had to start using them again (very cautiously) as I hate the feeling of wax in my ear. I also no longer buy own brand ones!

SushiMonster · 05/02/2019 12:17

I use them once or twice a week and don’t push, just lightly swirl round the outter part.

GladAllOver · 05/02/2019 12:32

My doctor said 'Never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear'.

ChristmasFluff · 05/02/2019 12:36

I've just been looking at my ears, because I was brought up with the 'only thing you put in your ears is your elbow' mantra. I have no wax. I wash my ears when I'm in the bath or shower - so once a day - twice max.

Could it be that the people who have waxy ears have waxy ears because they stick cotton buds in them? Or I suppose it could be that people use them because they produce loads of wax.

My ears never itch either.

My goodness, I think I've finally found the best-functioning part of my body!

Original poster
cowsoy · 05/02/2019 12:38

FineWordsForAPorcupine that post was really informative, thank you very much.

My new goal will be to stop using cotton buds, see if the wax production decreases, and use Audiclean if things get out of hand.

Thanks all.

OP posts:
GoFiguire · 05/02/2019 12:54

Can we use Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees Mogg as a cotton bud? I’d like to see them both covered in ear wax

TheNoodlesIncident · 05/02/2019 12:57

...it dries a little (so it is no longer the gooey orange stuff you feel the need to "clean") and becomes a bit paler and flakier. When it reaches the ear opening, it drops out in small flakes and is usually washed away in the shower

Nope. Doesn't happen like that for everyone. My ears are quite like that, sometimes they itch which is maddening but on the whole not too noticeably waxy. However my ds takes after his dad, whose tendency is to dark brown, sticky globby wax that is very noticeable and looks foul. I clean it off with a cotton bud, but no more than the tip goes "inside", the bud is simply wiped around the aperture. I am not sticking things inside my kid's ears, just the visible rim.

I don't judge people with waxy ears, but I can't bear to see it in my child's. It makes him look a bit neglected, like when he had bubbles of snot hanging out his nose all the time or a misshapen home haircut

SabineUndine · 05/02/2019 13:25

Wax drops out on its own, given time and if it's not pushed back in, because the tiny hairs in your ears direct it out.

I once gave myself an abscess on my eardrum, using cotton buds. It was the most exquisite agony and it took 48 hours until the antibiotics I got for it kicked in. My ear oozed fluorescent green pus. I would never, under any circumstances, put anything involving cotton wool in my ears again.

BarbarianMum · 05/02/2019 16:04

Sorry porcupine but it really doesnt work that way for many of us. All you end up with is orange, sticky wax coming out of your ears.

Idonotsetanalarmformyteen · 05/02/2019 16:15

I personally find the new eco-friendly cotton buds really unsatisfying - as soon as I push on them they bend, so I can't get a really satisfactory rub

Yes I bulk bought Johnsons when they said they were going to change them, and only realised once I had them that they'd already switched away from the plastic ones. Serves me right for not being eco-friendly (although as mentioned I never put them in the loo).

I used to stick a hair grip in my ears when I was a kid.

daisypond · 05/02/2019 16:21

I'm really surprising that people are using cotton buds to stick in their ears. I thought it was common knowledge that you should never do that - because of the risk of damaging your ears.

NotANotMan · 05/02/2019 16:26

I view it as a calculated risk. Worth it for clean ears.

Janethevirgo · 05/02/2019 16:29

I love using them, I believe the feeling is called an eargasm.

Ifangyow · 05/02/2019 16:53

There's nothing more satisfying than a good old wriggle and jiggle round the earhole with the curved end of a hairgrip. Bliss.
Yes, yes, I know it's bad, but like a cream cake, it's naughty but nice.

FiveRedBricks · 05/02/2019 16:58

This is the grimmest wank thread ever 😨🤢

Sunshinewithshowers123 · 05/02/2019 17:09

Lidl sell "safety" cotton buds in case anyone is worried about pushing the cotton buds too far in.