I’ll admit it: I’m one of the people who does use a Q-tip to clean my ears, particularly after a shower, but I also know how to do it safely because I’ve seen firsthand what can happen when someone jams a cotton swab too far in their ear.
“Q-tips actually say on the box, if you read it, not to put them in your ears,” said Dr. Kristen Angster, a Henry Ford Health ear, nose and throat specialist. “They are not safe to put in the ear canal.”
Q: I’ve seen some survey data that suggests as many as 70 or 80% of people use Q-tips despite your advice. Why do you think so many people just ignore it?
A: “I think, one, is that nobody really thinks they’re going to hurt themselves, even those who do, and I will tell you the number one thing people say when they come in with an eardrum injury is, ‘I knew I shouldn’t be doing it.’ I do, fairly often, at least a few times a year, see people for injuries to their eardrum from a Q-tip, and it most frequently happens because they either get distracted while cleaning their ears and then bump their elbow on a door frame or something in the bathroom. Or someone else bumps their elbow while they’re cleaning their ears, and then they can cause a perforation of the eardrum.”
Q: What are your thoughts on ear candling, as it is a popular internet remedy?
A: “It is. It’s very popular on TikTok. I think mostly because when you open up the packaging afterward, there’s all this debris in there, and people think that’s coming from their ear, but mostly it’s actually the inside of the ear kindling device that kind of falls apart as it’s warmed up. But you can drip burning debris onto your face or onto your ear. So we really recommend against that, and it really hasn’t been shown to be very effective.”
Back to Q-tips: if you use them, don’t walk around with one in your ear and stay away from people that might bump you. Also, you really should avoid pushing the cotton swab into your ear canal; there’s a good chance that any wax in there will just get packed in tighter. When I use them, I mostly just dry the crevices in my earlobe, and I don’t use them inside the ear canal.