To not give up using cotton ear buds?

[cowsoy]

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...

Thanks, @ItsNiceItsDifferentItsUnusual - it's kind of you to answer

I can only hope, after being so stupid, that mine will heal too; online sites say they usually do unless the perforation is very large, but of course I can't see inside my own ear to tell!!

I'm hearing impaired anyway (age related) and can do without it being any worse long term. At least there's been no pain since I actually ruptured it, but it's safe to say I won't be doing anything quite so ridiculous ever again ...

My ears don’t seem to get wet in the shower, must be doing something wrong. I also have no idea whether my dc have wax or not, a new patentable failure for my list!

Once, when younger, non-waxy ds woke up with wax all in his bed. Gawd knows what had happened, but there was tons of it. It was like he’d got it all out of his system in one go.

Maybe he had a temperature? When mine have had a decent temperature (40 deg), even as teens, there is wax everywhere. The temp melts it and it runs out all over the ear and the bed.

If you tease the cotton bud tip to a point and dampen it slightly, then go in for a twirl it is orgasmic
Never hurt myself or had any form of infection doing this

cook -it’s an eargasm

Puzzledandpissedoff
Don’t worry - I’ve had multiple eardrum perforations and they do heal - can take several weeks or even a few months to do so completely, but IME it gets noticeably better after the first fortnight. Sympathies though - I found the pain comparable to childbirth!

P.S. my parents cleaned my ears with cotton buds from babyhood