When cotton swabs were introduced in the 1920s, one of their biggest uses was to clean babies' ears. These days, cotton swabs are almost an ear pick! I believe that many people have itchy ears, after taking a bath, take a cotton swab! But in fact, behind this small move, but "hidden murder."

Got infected with a cotton swab in your ear.

This guy started having left ear pain and headaches five years ago. This year, he has been suffering from nausea and vomiting, and has even experienced short periods of unconsciousness. According to the doctor's examination, he has developed necrotizing otitis externa.

The disease is usually accompanied by yellow or green foul-smelling fluid coming out of the ear, ear pain, itching and hearing loss. Necrotizing external otitis often affects the normal operation of other nerves, and can cause severe life-threatening conditions such as massive hemorrhage, meningitis, brain abscess, and cerebral malacia.

Over time, the infection spread to the brain, triggering seizures. A CT scan by the medical team revealed two pus-filled masses under his skull near his left ear canal, which would have been dangerous to treat any later.

In order to effectively eliminate the infection, doctors further searched for the root cause of the disease. Finally, with the help of brain imaging, they found a foreign object in the man's ear canal. The thing that was identified as causing the severe infection was a small pinch of cotton.

It turns out that this guy has a habit of cleaning his ear canal with cotton swabs after taking a bath, but he never thought it would cause such consequences. The boy's doctor said the seizures could have been caused by toxicity from the infection or pressure on the brain.

Fortunately, timely treatment, otherwise the consequences are unimaginable!

Children are very hurt

In fact, compared with things like ear spoons, using cotton swabs to pick your ears may seem safe, but the effect may be counterproductive.

The Q-tips will push the earwax deeper into your ear, where you can no longer pick it out. This can cause fungi, bacteria, viruses, etc. to accumulate in the outer ear canal, resulting in pain and infection.

This is from cleaning your ears with cotton swabs at home!

Frequent and chronic ear cleaning

May also cause cancer

In fact, we often talk about earwax, that is, earwax, it is not dirty, but the substance secreted by the ear. Its presence is necessary, has the function of antibacterial protection of the ear canal, if all cleaned up can cause harm.

Normally, earwax is excreted automatically when you speak, eat, or yawn with the movement of your jaw. In other words, even if you don't dig it, it may come out by itself, why do you bother and risk so much?

Ears are very sensitive and fragile, and if you don't pay attention when you pick them, it can lead to hearing loss, ear infections, and even permanent damage. What's more frightening is that long-term ear cleaning may also induce papilloma of the external auditory canal or ceruminous gland cancer. Although papilloma is a benign tumor, it is very easy to relapse after surgical resection, and multiple recurrences are very likely to turn into malignant tumors.

Because the skin of our external ear canal is relatively thin, if we repeatedly use relatively hard things to pick it, it may destroy the skin of the external ear canal and destroy the barrier of the external ear canal, which may lead to harmful bacteria growing in it, causing inflammation of the external ear canal. If repeated mechanical stimulation, cut the ear, the external ear canal is constantly repaired, through the process of repeated destruction and repair, some cells may appear a series of malignant changes.

Ear protection

Having said so much, it is not that you dare not pick your ears anymore, since the cotton swabs can not be used, then how do we correctly "pick your ears"? Here are a few ways to do it.

First, you can apply a few drops of white vinegar heated to body temperature, rubbing alcohol and white water mixture, and rinse yourself with a syringe.

Second, sometimes dry skin in your ear canal can cause extra earwax to accumulate in the ear canal, so you can give your ear a drop of mineral oil to help moisturize it. It's like putting lotion on your body's skin.

If you have a damaged eardrum or have had any ear surgery in the past, skip all of these options. Simply wash your external ear canal with a towel.

If you are born with more earwax, or there is a case of earwax blocking the ear canal, you can go to the hospital to deal with it. The otolaryngologist will remove the earwax with a professional tool while looking directly at it through a frontal mirror.

Therefore, although it is comfortable to pick your ears, you need to be careful! Do not use cotton swabs to pick ears, as a parent, it is not easy to pick children's ears! If there are frequent foreign objects in the ear, or if there is excessive cerumen production, it is recommended to go to the hospital for examination and let the doctor determine whether treatment is necessary. Do not wait for a more serious condition to get medical treatment, so as to avoid hearing damage.