Hearing Loss
HEARING LOSS

Ear-Cleaning Methods to Avoid

2020-09-26 A lot of people believe that they know the best way to clean their ears at home. In fact, many of these people are not trained in hearing health and therefore, do not know the safest ways and often end up doing things that could end up damage their hearing. We all clean our ears at home to stop that build-up of wax getting to a point where we can’t hear properly anymore. But what methods are you using? Here are some of the ear cleaning methods that you should avoid.

Ear drops
While ear drops are popular among people who don’t like to put physical things in their ears, but they don’t just do the job that you think they’re doing. Ear drops don’t just remove the wax from your ear. Instead, it breaks it down and makes it softer so that the wax can come out naturally. But the use of ear drops can come with a variety of risks and one of these is an infection. If you are using these drops constantly, you are putting yourself at higher risk to get an ear infection. This is going to be especially likely if there is any form of bacteria on the injector when you put the drops in.

Instead of doing this, you should visit your audiologist and ask them to clean your ears out properly for you. You won’t just get a professional clean, but this way is a lot safer than other methods.

Cotton swabs
This is the most common method that people use when trying to clean their ears. However, if you insert these cotton buds too far in, you are at risk of causing damage to your inner ear. As well as this, they are large pieces of cotton being inserted into your ear, which often means that you are pushing the earwax deeper into your ear, rather than cleaning it out. This will mean that in the end, the wax buildup will be so bad that removing it is going to be much more difficult than if you would have got it cleaned by an audiologist in the first place.

Ear scoops/picks
This is another popular method to clean your ears. These are small instruments that are inserted into your ear to scoop out the wax. What many people don’t realize is that the ear is very delicate and even the slightest wrong move could cause damage to your inner ear. Or, you could have picked up various forms of bacteria if you have not cleaned them properly when you used it previously. Any small metal objects should be kept out of your ears at all times. Consult your audiologist about the best ways to clean your ears. Or, get a professional ear cleaning appointment to make sure that everything is done in the safest possible way.

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