The strange life of Q-tips, the most bizarre thing people buy

The two varieties have significantly different properties. "Dry" ear wax tends to be crumbly and flaky, and can usually be removed effectively with a curette (if you dare). "Wet" ear tends to be dark, smelly, and sticky.

I do not think that people with dry ear wax, in particular, really understand what people with "wet" ear wax are saying when they talk about ear wax buildup and removal.

    The ones who keep coming
    back with infections are 
    the ones who don't listen.

Doctors encounter lots of people whose ear injuries are attributable to Q-tips. They therefore conclude that Q-tips should never be used to clean ears.

But people who know how to clean their ears without damaging them don't go to the doctor to complain about their healthy ears.

For example, pushing the wax inwards is obviously a bad idea, but this can be avoided.

It is sort of an oily type of drops that you put in your ear, leave it (with your head tilted sideways) for a half our or so, and it ends up crystallizing the wax so that it will fall out naturally. You can actually hear it working, ind of like a bubbling sound. Afterwords you use the bulb syringe that comes with the kit to flush out the ear canal.

When the name is that, it makes sense to poke your ears with them.

I tell people not to use them in their ears but everyone is so used to the idea, it sounds absurd when you argue that ear sticks are bad for ears.

The real ear "killer" out there is loud noise and daily abuse. You're more likely to damage your ears listening to earbuds 8 hours, Mon to Fri or going to a monthly concert/club with 100+dB for 4 to 6 hours with no ear protection.

Talk to an ENT about serious issue like tinnitus and they'll tell you with a straight face that a) they don't really know what causes it and b) the prescribed treatment is "just try to ignore it". It doesn't produce a lot of faith that the science is really there. For me this article is closer to fad nutrition advice that consistently contradicts the previous reports.

Is this article coming from some alternate reality where people clean their ears for some dangerous guilty pleasure, and ear wax does not need to be cleaned away just as any other bodily secretion?

I think that there are several possible ways besides simply inserting the Q-tip in a straight motion and thereby pushing earwax towards the tympanum. Personally, the way I use Q-tips is to insert them from below the ear at a 45 degree angle, constantly rotating the Q-tip and then performing a swipe around the ear canal while keeping up the rotating motion (resembling the precession movement of a gyroscope). Using this technique, I never had any issues with pushing earwax towards the tympanum or irritating the ear canal. The advantages are less itching in the ear canal caused by ear wax, and having no visible crumbles of ear wax falling out of my ears. I seem to have the "wet" ear wax type.

It seems like this is a common and weird instance of problems that re-occur when medical professionals give advice to patients and the general public:

* Lack of insight into why people are exhibiting the behaviour. For me at least, the natural buildup of ear wax produces itching, and using Q-tips is a significant relief. In the re-occuring advice to the public by medical professionals this seems to be ignored.

* Lack of understanding of the importance of aesthetics. Yes, it might be natural to have large crumbs of ear wax visibly protruding from your ear canal, but that does not make it irrational to dislike how it looks. Ignorance of such social factors leads to 'unexplained' lack of compliance with medical advice, which in turn leads to a decrease in the quality of doctor-patient relationship and ineffective public health interventions.

* Lack of interest in harm reduction approaches. For several decades articles like the OP have been published, seemingly with minor or no effect on actual practices. It might be more reasonable to accept that people are very keen on cleaning their ears, and to find strategies to reduce the potential harm while still letting people do what they want. Simple advice on HOW to use a Q-tip without harming yourself (don't push in too much, don't push in straight if you really can't do without it) might have more overall positive impact.

I've since heard that the candles might not actually work, anyone know anything on this ear clearing option?

Secondly, sure, the wax will fall out on its own if you don't Q-tip it....but do you like looking at people with little gobs of wax falling out of their ears?

I clean my ears regularly with Q-tips for those two reasons. Yes I stick them in the ear canal. No I don't push the wax deeper (you just need to twist as you put it in). And no I've never in my 50 years had an ear infection or hurt the eardrum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_pick