NEW YORK, Jan 4 — It’s time to lay off those cotton buds, buddy.
The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation has published new guidelines on how to clean your earwax — which is pretty much don’t.
The report said that cleaning your ears too can push wax further into the canal, mucking up that natural cycle.
Apparently, the body has an in-built system to deal with earwax that build-ups naturally, by circulating old wax out of the ears all by itself.
Chewing, moving your jaw and growing new skin cells in the ear canal all help to do this.
You only get a build-up of wax when this process breaks down, the report added.
Seth R. Schwartz, head of the guidelines group, wrote: “There is an inclination for people to want to clean their ears because they believe earwax is an indication of uncleanliness. This misinformation leads to unsafe ear health habits.
“Patients often think that they are preventing earwax from building up by cleaning out their ears with cotton swabs, paper clips, ear candles, or any number of unimaginable things that people put in their ears. The problem is that this effort to eliminate earwax is only creating further issues because the earwax is just getting pushed down and impacted further into the ear canal.”
So there you have it. However satisfying it may be or whatever your mama said, it’s time to put those cotton buds down for good.
