the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

O.K. guys, who does what ?
Have any of you ever hurt your ear using a q-tip ?
I know that doctors recomend not to use anything like it. I've used q-tips for years without a problem.
I'm going to start trying to pull down on my earlobe while showering and letting the water clean out the wax ( as I just saw a doctor recommend on tape ). I'll see how well it works. Anybody using this method now ?

I just use a small paperclip with the small end bent into a loop.

S

i don't have an ear wax problem. Although, I wash my ears real good every time I shower and pretty much do what your doctor suggested, so maybe that is why.

Ear wax is there with a reason, I leave it alone unless it starts oozing out of my earholes. If it gets nasty then I just wash it in the shower.

When I was a kid I used to get lots of ear infections. When I started cleaning them out when I was a teen they stopped and I haven't had one since.

S

Warm water from showering usually does a decent job of diluting the wax so it runs out of the ear instead of congealing in the outer ear canal. If you shower every day, probably you won't get wax buildup if you let the water "irrigate" your ear. But I wouldn't turn the ear upward toward the shower head (water could get forced deeper into your middle ear, which you don't want). The idea of just letting it run into the outer canal area by tugging your earlobe down makes sense, but you may not even have to do that in the normal course of showering.

Coincidentally, I was in a Chinese gift/tschotschke shop today and they had a box of "earwax spoons" for a buck apiece. They're like a little bitty scoop for reaching into that hard-to-get-to part of the ear canal where wax can build up. But some people swear by using the loop end of a bobby pin, which is sold by the package in most pharmacy-type stores like Walgreen's and CVS. You use the loop to scrape the wax gently.

Ed's Earwax methods:

1. Q-tip - okay for mushy earwax, bad for dry earwax (just sticks it in there further... don't answer telephone calls while Q-tipping yourself)
2. Asian mini-spoon - very nice, just spoon it all out (don't dig too hard; still safer than paperclip end)
3. Spraying water in the ear - well, could be useful to make #1 or #2 easier, but the wax doesn't really fall out of the ear that way in my experience... Good of course for cleaning the outside part of the ear
4. Doctor's "ear plunger" tool - kind of painful, but gets it ALL out (go to your doctor for this)
5. Nothing - if you have mushy earwax, it will become gross after a while; if you have dry earwax, it will eventually either just fall out (in a clump) one day while you are lounging around (and have your head tilted) or else will become a huge, hard ball that you cannot get rid of (without #4)...

Arg! Mushy vs. Crumbly. Takes me back to a grad school anthropology course where I learned that earwax texture is hereditary, and is a traceable trait to the world's various geographic regions. To wit: Asians and Caucasians are more likely to have sticky earwax, while Africans (Sub-Saharan) have a higher frequency of crumbly wax.

Things I did not need to know, but found myself forced to learn. Now I share with you.

this thread is delicious!

do not put q-tips deep into your ear. you stand a good chance of pushing a wax build up further in and the possibility of damage to the riggings and doings of the ear.

ask your doctor or pharmacist about Cerumenex ear drops and there is a variant of mineral spirits you can use as drops to soften and dissolve wax.
You can also ask nicely to have someone use an earwax spoon on you.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... hpick.html

Darth,
When I was in India, I was sitting in a park in New Delhi and saw a professional earwax remover making his rounds. He politely went up to people relaxing in the park, brandished the tools of his trade - sticks and scoops of various shapes - stated his price and went to work whenever someone accepted his services. It's a living.

HTFU - Hairpin

Asian spoon dealy- I've used it for about 3 years now, and swear by it. Best gift I ever stole from an ex.

Nothing feels better than cleaning out a waxed up ear, and in fact, I think I shall do so before bed.

electric toothbrush. plus lasers. green lasers.

Interloper wrote:Darth,
When I was in India, I was sitting in a park in New Delhi and saw a professional earwax remover making his rounds. He politely went up to people relaxing in the park, brandished the tools of his trade - sticks and scoops of various shapes - stated his price and went to work whenever someone accepted his services. It's a living.

Now that would bother the hell out of me, someone else digging in my ear. So that said, what other types of profession do they have that I don't ever want to have to say leave me along please now. I mean don't want to sound rude, but heck it sounds like it calls for just that.