{"id":3407,"date":"2018-01-09T15:03:07","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T20:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.fm1.dev\/cleaning-your-ears-why-you-shouldnt-use-cotton-swabs\/"},"modified":"2018-01-09T15:03:07","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T20:03:07","slug":"cleaning-your-ears-why-you-shouldnt-use-cotton-swabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/cleaning-your-ears-why-you-shouldnt-use-cotton-swabs\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleaning Your Ears: Why You Shouldn&#8217;t Use Cotton Swabs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever been tempted to clean out your ears<!--more--> (or your children\u2019s ears) with cotton swabs? Experts have one word of advice: don\u2019t!<\/p>\n<p>Earwax (cerumen) is supposed to be in your ears. It has a mission: to keep your ears healthy by trapping dust and dirt so that they don\u2019t travel deeper into your ear. Having a waxy coating on your delicate ear canal skin also helps to protect it. The inside of your ear doesn\u2019t need to be cleaned\u00a0because earwax is the cleaner.<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7418\" src=\"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Cleaning-your-ears-with-cotton-swabs-300x210.jpg\" alt=\"Cleaning your ears with cotton swabs\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Cleaning-your-ears-with-cotton-swabs-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Cleaning-your-ears-with-cotton-swabs.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Your body already has a way to deal with earwax it no longer needs. Chewing, other jaw movements, and skin growing inside your ear will push old earwax out naturally. Using cotton swabs, however, can push the wax deeper into your ear canal. You might also seriously damage sensitive ear canal skin or your eardrum.<\/p>\n<p>Earwax buildup is not very common. According to the<a class=\"ext\" href=\"http:\/\/www.entnet.org\/content\/experts-update-best-practices-diagnosis-and-treatment-earwax-cerumen-impaction-important\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u00a0American Academy of Otolaryngology\u2014Head and Neck Surgery<\/a>, just 1 in 10 children and 1 in 20 adults have this problem. Some people may be more susceptible to \u00a0earwax build up. About 3 in 10 elderly adults and developmentally disabled adults might have more of a problem with earwax.<\/p>\n<p>Signs of too much earwax or earwax that is stuck and blocking the ear canal include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pain or itching<\/li>\n<li>A feeling that your ear is full<\/li>\n<li>Ringing in the ear (tinnitus)<\/li>\n<li>Hearing loss (or a change in how well hearing aids work, for those who use them)<\/li>\n<li>Odor or discharge<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you have any of these symptoms, <a href=\"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/contact\/\">contact<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/about\/\"> Speech and Hearing Associates<\/a> at<br \/>\n<a href=\"tel:1-800-742-7551\">1-800-742-7551<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever been tempted to clean out your ears<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speechandhearingassoc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}