Here's Why You Should NEVER Use A Cotton Bud To Clean Your Ears

Remember in Girls when Lena Dunham gets a cotton bud stuck so deep in her ear it bleeds and she has to go to the hospital? If that wasn't enough to put you off rooting around in there with a cotton bud for life, I don't know what is.

But still we do it. Medical journal BMJ recently reported that a 31-year-old man from Coventry recently got rushed to hospital with "stroke-like seizures" and violent headaches. After he was investigated, it turned out that a piece of cotton bud had become buried deep inside his ear. The bud had led to "necrotising otitis externa", a bacterial infection that starts in the ear canal before spreading to the skull, where it eats through the bone.

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Now, this is a pretty extreme example, and one that might seem like scare-mongering if you're pro cleaning out your ears with cotton buds. But cotton buds have made the news again recently for their negative impact on the environment due to the sheer amount of plastic waste.

The NHS, GPs, and even the makers of cotton buds are entirely against using it to clean your ears - if you read most packaging, it even says not to shove it in your ear, or at least doesn't recommend it. As the old saying goes, you shouldn't be putting anything smaller than an elbow in there.

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Cotton buds in the ear can cause bleeding, impacted earwax, perforated ear drums, tinnitus, and infections. We know we shouldn't do it, but two-thirds of us do according to a YouGov survey. Our guess is that it's because we mistakenly believe earwax is dirty or unhygienic, or even just enjoy the satisfaction of getting loads of it out.

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Earwax actually isn't dirty - it acts as a filter, blocking dust and dirt out of our ears, and even repels water. It kills bacteria too, so simply put, we need it. If you really have a problem with wax buildup, either see your doctor, book in a private wax-sucking, or pick up some sodium bicarbonate drops from the chemist. Better still, just try and leave it. We need earwax, and what we don't need is ears that can't protect themselves against infection or stop actual dirt getting in!

Topics: Health

Marianne Eloise

Marianne writes about TV, film and internet culture for Nylon, VICE, The Guardian, Vulture, Time Out and more. She was previously a staff writer at Dazed.