It’s just that I hate the feeling of soggy earholes after a shower, and the terrycloth towel isn’t much use there.
I am a doctor. I’ve examined countless people with ear complaints. I’ve seen at least a couple hundred people who have caused significant damage to their ear canals or eardrums by sticking cotton swabs in there. Including perforated eardrums.
Having said that, I’ve cleaned my ears with cotton swabs for a half century and have never injured myself.
Go figure.
Not exciting. Cheap swab, thin cotton, scratched my ear a bit.
I use them to dry my outer ear and a very little bit in the ear canal. I hate wet ears!
I stick to the brand Q as well, and have made it over 40 years without incident so far. I’ve been known to utilize a pen cap when a swab was unavailable, my ears get itchy or tickley if there’s much more than an inkling of wax in there. I do try to be careful, and don’t do it if other people or distractions are around.
How else am I supposed to get my morning eargasm?
I’m not usually fancy enough to bother with a cotton swab. I just use a key or handle of a pen cap, but I don’t insert far enough to hurt my eardrum.
Do you guys flood your ears every shower? How are your ears so wet? The inside of my ears stays dry even when I swim (except freestyle).
Absolutely! I feel sorry for people who don’t experience it daily. As with the other-gasm, if it hurts, you’re doing it wrong!
I use both bobby pins and cotton swabs. Cotton swabs after a shower, and the rounded end of a bobby pin if the ear wax has built up too much.
My daughter has to clean out her cats’ ears every now and then, with a cotton swab. And with the vet’s approval. The cats do NOT approve.
I was wondering the same thing. I’ll occasionally get an ear full of water when rinsing out shampoo in the shower, but it’s pretty rare.
For me it’s not a full ear canal, but the outer ear and just a smidge into the canal. Qtips are the perfect size and shape for a quick run around the ear and bit into the ear canal.
if you’re dumb enough to somehow injure your ears with a qtip, you probably shouldn’t have any sharp objects in the house either.
[Mr. Blonde]
"Hello? Hey what’s goin’ on? Can you hear that?”
[/Mr. Blonde]
Not flooded, but damp and coated with droplets in such a way as to cause unpleasant sensations when scratching my ear with my finger or when laying my head on a pillow with one ear facing downwards. In each case the water helps form a perfect seal that can result in temporarily blocked hearing and/or uncomfortable pressure fluctuations.
The only way to hurt yourself is if you fall on it or bump it, which I’ve done after foolishly leaving it in my ear. Heck, I’ve done it under doctor’s orders (to remove a bug). Honestly, it’s things like this, where people do it safely all the time, that make people not take doctor’s warnings to heart.
The only people who need to worry about it are those who produce so much wax that a Q-tip might cause it to get impacted.
Heck, my sister has a friend who is 90% deaf in one ear because of falling on one when he was young, and even he still uses Q-tips.
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen with lacerations of the ear canal from Q-tips. I’ve also removed the cotton from many ears after it came off, along with various other things (like the little caps things on the end of bic pens). Of course your doctor would NEVER laugh at you behind your back when you suffer an ear-cleaning-related injury because that would be wrong.
I’ve seen lighted ones. What are they for?
For safety, I firmly grip the bud near the tip, so my fingers are against my ear when the bud is inside. I’ve seen some people hold the middle of the bud with 2 fingers.
Missing a “Used to, but no longer do after I thought that I could hurt myself” option.
There’s also the issue of cotton coming off and remaining in the ear canal, meaning a trip to the doctor is required to remove it.