Associate Professor, Dr. Le Cong Dinh examines a patient - Photo: BVCC
Many complications can occur when cleaning ears.
Ms. NTL, 36 years old, has a habit of cleaning her ears. One day, she forgot that she had a cotton swab in her ear to do something else. A moment later, she accidentally touched her ear, pushing the cotton swab deeper, causing damage to her eardrum.
The endoscopy results showed that the patient had a large perforated eardrum, almost the entire posterior corner, and a scratched and blood-clotted left ear canal. An audiogram showed that the patient had grade 3 conductive hearing loss, and a CT scan suspected a fracture of the anterior pillar of the left stapes (one of the small bones of the middle ear, involved in transmitting sound vibrations to the inner ear).
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Le Cong Dinh - Head of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Bach Mai Hospital (Hanoi), ear picking is a dangerous action. Many patients have suffered from inflammation and fungus in the ear canal and are at risk of deafness because of this habit.
There are patients who have to be hospitalized after many days of tinnitus. The more the tinnitus, the more the patient uses cotton swabs to clean his ears, the more the tinnitus becomes worse. When he is hospitalized, the ear canal is bleeding, the eardrum is torn, deafness...
Doctor Vu Thi Thanh Binh, an ENT specialist at the Vietnam - Russia Medical Group, said that the ear canal, like the skin, secretes sebum, sweat and earwax to protect the eardrum from dust, insects and bacteria.
"Many people have the habit of cleaning their ears when they have nothing to do, thinking that this action makes their ears cleaner. But in fact, this behavior is very bad, there is no need to clean your ears regularly and earwax is not as dirty as we think, its existence has a certain meaning" - Dr. Binh said.
Dr. Binh added that earwax acts as a protective layer that can prevent foreign objects, dust or small insects in the air from entering the ear canal, thereby reducing the risk of ear damage.
In addition, some components in earwax can also inhibit and kill some bacteria, helping the ear to function normally. In addition, earwax also has a moisturizing effect, which can prevent itching caused by dry ears.
The ears have the ability to self-clean, when we talk, walk or move our heads, the two ears also move. During this process, earwax will be eliminated from the body, so there is no need to clean the ears regularly. Cleaning the ears regularly can cause 3 bad consequences as follows:
- Irritation of the ear canal : The skin in the ear canal is very fragile, frequently using sharp tools to clean the ear can easily cause irritation and damage to this sensitive skin. When the ear is injured, more earwax is secreted to protect the ear, leading to a buildup of wax. This is why some people pick their earwax more.
- Causes infection : When earwax is hard and abundant, many people tend to want to remove it very strongly, not even giving up until they feel pain. In fact, cleaning your ears this way can easily scratch the skin of your ear canal.
When a wound appears on the skin, bacteria can enter and cause infection. There are also some cases where the skin is scratched, damaging the hair follicles, if bacteria enter the hair follicles, it will cause inflammation.
- Affects hearing : The habit of regularly cleaning your ears can accidentally puncture the eardrum, thereby causing hearing loss. Some severe cases can also cause otitis media, which can only be cured by surgery.
Earwax does not form deep in the ear canal, but is located in the external ear canal. When chewing, jaw movements help push the wax out of the ear canal. In terms of function, the ear has the ability to clean itself without the need for regular earwax removal. Using cotton swabs or other ear cleaning tools to push the wax deep inside can easily push the wax deep inside, increasing the risk of perforating the eardrum and causing infection.
- Perforated eardrum causes hearing loss, deafness, mastoiditis (a small, protruding bone located right behind the ear)...
Using cotton swabs to clean your ears can be very dangerous - Illustration: BVCC
How to clean ears properly?
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Hoai An, former head of the pediatrics department, Central Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, said: "Earwax is a phenomenon produced by the sebaceous glands related to the skin of the ear canal. Everyone has a certain amount of earwax produced every day. This is a normal excretory activity of the skin. Earwax is only abnormal in two cases:
Firstly, this is the case when earwax is too much for some reason, it accumulates in the ear and can cause the ear canal to transport sound from the outside to the eardrum more difficult, causing hearing loss.
Second, when earwax is left for a long time, when swimming or bathing in the sea, seawater enters the ear, causing the earwax to swell, causing otitis externa and external earwax.
Cleaning earwax out of the ear is a good habit and not harmful, but knowing how to clean the ear canal to protect the outer ear well will protect good sound transmission.
According to Dr. Binh, doctors do not recommend removing earwax every day. When bathing, if water accidentally gets into the ear, just tilt the ear to let the water out, use a cotton swab to clean the ear canal to clean the water, the air will go in and out of the ear and the stagnant water will dry on its own.
Absolutely avoid using sharp objects to remove earwax. It is extremely dangerous if it damages the skin of the ear canal or perforates the eardrum. When removing earwax, we must choose a time and position so that family members and children do not touch the ear when cleaning.
In fact, many patients, while removing earwax, have their elbows touch the cotton swabs that penetrate deep into the ear canal, causing serious complications.
Associate Professor Hoai An recommends using cotton wool or tissue to gently wipe the outside of the ear canal. In case of excessive earwax, forming an earwax plug, one should go to a medical facility for treatment by a doctor. When there are signs of suspected eardrum perforation, the patient should go to an ENT facility for examination and treatment.
To relieve itchy ears, according to Dr. Binh, when you feel itchy, you can drop a few drops of salt water into the ear canal, shake it gently a few times to moisten the ear canal completely with salt water, then use a cotton swab to gently wipe around the ear. Repeat a few times and the earwax will be clean and the itchy feeling will go away.
Many people have the habit of removing earwax at the barber shop, because the barber is skillful, but because the barber does not understand the tools used to remove earwax, passing them from one person to another can cause skin infections in the ear canal... Sharing such tools can lead to many cases of ear canal fungal infections that are very difficult to cure.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/co-can-phai-lay-ray-tai-thuong-xuyen-20240530080247476.htm
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