Greetings~ I found out today that your not supposed to clean out your ears with Q-tips.. Seems I had some ear wax (yuck) attached to the ear drum, here I thought it was just some wax in the canal. stuck a Q-tip in and poof instant impacted wax. it shut down all hearing in the right ear. Well after lots of flushing (that didnt work) the doctor and a nurse had to hold my head down and scrape the wax off of the ear drum... (lets just say F*ing extreme pain)! Released 3 hrs later with prescription drops (pain is subciding) I won't be cleaning out my ears with Q-tips anymore.......
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ May 4 2006, 05:14 PM) [snapback]249943[/snapback]</div> I hate to say it but I was always told never to put a Q-Tip in your ear deeper than the depth you can put the tip of your little finger... edited to say: I'm so sorry for your pain! Feel better...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ May 4 2006, 04:14 PM) [snapback]249943[/snapback]</div> You poor soul - that you were treated by bloody incompetents!! I've had ear trouble since I was a kid - multiple operations, a trillion hearing tests, a billion ear cleanings - I know what it's like. In all that time no ENT (I can't spell the specialty's true name) ever SCRAPED anything in my ear. Nor in all that time did I ever have residual pain after a treatment. Cleanings were done with suction and very carefully manipulated tweezers to pull out coagulated discharges sometimes the size of small marbles. There would be occasional sharp twinges of pain if a coagulatd mass had glued itself to the skin and the tweezers had to pick it off bit by bit, but NEVER any kind of pain that would persist even a few seconds later. Wax was softened with a solvent and suctioned out, the only discomfort there being the load roar of the suction. Sounds like your ER doc graduated from the house paint removal school: scrape scrape scrape! Ow!! I hope next time you get too much wax you get a doc that knows what solvent and suction are for! Mark Baird Alameda CA
While I know I shouldn't, I *do* use q-tips in my ear. But I don't put them in all that far and I clean my ears really regularly. I've never had trouble with wax build up. That said, my Mother always recommended laying ear down on a heating pad for ear aches that might be caused by wax. I guess the heating pad would help to soften the wax and gravity would do the rest. I've never had my ears cleaned. I hope I never have to.
Crayola Model Magic + Trekkie = Attempt to make Vulcan ears = Model Magic stuck in ear canal I got off with flushing, but I refused to admit the problem until the ear canal got infected. Not fun. But man, I think you got the worst of it. Scraping the ear drum sounds plan old barbaric. (P.S. I didn't even have being a little kid that dosn't know better for an exuse. I was 17.)
Sometimes I stick the 'Q' Tip in my ear and clean the wax in my ear canal and off of my ear drum very carefully. I have heard before that I'm not supposed to do this.
I had a plug of ear wax removed from both ears years ago (former chronic Q-tip user), and I must say, it was kind of, do I dare say, pleasurable. Not only did I hear better, but the suction sound when the plugs came out......I need a smoke Rule of thumb...nothing smaller than your elbow goes in your ear! Outer fleshy part OK. In bad.
I'm puzzled. I've been around for quite a few years now. How come I've NEVER had an urge to clean my ears out with a Q-Tip?
I'd rank cleaning out my ears with a Q-Tip almost on the same level as getting my back scratched. Especially when I get out of the shower, my ears are so itchy, I just can't help myself!
Ugh, that sounds like an awful experience; glad you went to the ER instead of trying to fix it yourself (like I did with my windshield...I mean, fixing it yourself, not taking it to the ER). Swam competitively for many years...doc said early on don't put Q-tips into ears further than the little cotton ball on the end. You might try one of those ear rinsing kits, with the liquid you put in the ear canal and the little water squirter thingie that blasts the wax out (usually).
I've used Q-tips before also, but generally after a shower when the warm water has helped softened things up. I did push one in too far once and hit something I shouldn't have hit. Ouch.
Use some regular hydrogen peroxide (3%) - works quite well. I just tilt my head and pour a bit in when I'm in the shower and let it "sit" for a little bit. And the fizzing/bubbling sound is pretty cool too - also feels kind of strange when you pour a cool liquid into your ear canal. There are also specialty "ear cleaning" solutions you can purchase at drug stores, with solutions made to dissolve the wax.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(gilahiker @ May 4 2006, 06:22 PM) [snapback]249952[/snapback]</div> I was always told that the only thing I should put in my ear is my elbow.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fphinney @ Oct 18 2006, 02:06 AM) [snapback]334321[/snapback]</div> Can you hear me now? As a kid I jumped into a creek and darn near drowned. Some wax had been jarred loose and messed up my sense of balance in the ear. I had it flushed out at an emergency room. Since then I have the blue rubber bulb in the shower and wash out at semi-regular intervals with warm water. If there is a problem, you can get some wax-disolver meant for this and it helps a lot. (Or, you can go out to the woodshed with somebody and have them jar it loose for you. Inside joke.) Pain is nature's way of telling you to stop doin' that. (Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down.) Hope all is well now.
