The most frequent cause of pain alone is the use of Q-tips to clean out the wax. This scrapes out the protective ear-wax called cerumen which serves a valuable purpose in lubricating and protecting the ear canals. Cerumen even kills some bacteria and has a bitter taste which discourages insects. When I examine a patient's ears with a lighted "Otoscope", the diagnosis is simple when I see red, scraped and inflamed ear canals. Often there are bloody patches but one of the worst problems comes from the cotton ball coming loose and getting wedged in the canal. It may be quite difficult to dislodge.

The worst problem that I have seen is when a young man reached down to pick up his backpack containing  books while cleaning his ear with a Q-tip. His shoulder drove the Q-tip deeply into the ear destroying  the ear drum (tympanic membrane) and the tiny bones of the hearing apparatus as well as the main balance mechanism. It took 6 hours of surgery to correct but, unfortunately, his hearing will never be the same.

When the ear feels plugged, then the trouble can be a build-up of cerumen which does happen in a few people and the cure is to flush out the cerumen. We do this at the office with certain apparatus or ear-cleaning kits can be purchased at any pharmacy for home use. Neither should be used when there is any suspicion of perforation which happens when a middle ear infection builds up enough pressure to burst the ear drum. Usually this is evident by a discharge of liquid such as pus and/or blood.

The main purpose of this information site is to alert you to the danger of the Q-tip and to make sure that you never insert one into the ear canal. A wash-cloth should do fine! The old saying holds true- "Never put anything into your ear smaller than your elbow"