Lifestyle22 November 20153 min read

Cotton buds can make you deaf!

By Mohammed Zafran/DTNN, zafran@dt.bh. Use of cotton ear buds may lead to mild deafness lasting months, an expert warns. Using cotton buds to clean earwax is ineffectual and could lead to repercussions, including eardrum perforation, warned Royal Bahrain Hospital (RBH) ENT Specialist Dr. Avneesh Kumar. He warned that

Editorial Team Legacy

Published 22 November 2015, 8:00 · Updated 22:00

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Use of cotton ear buds may lead to mild deafness lasting months, an expert warns.

Using cotton buds to clean earwax is ineffectual and could lead to repercussions, including eardrum perforation, warned Royal Bahrain Hospital (RBH) ENT Specialist Dr. Avneesh Kumar. He warned that while using the cotton buds, the biggest risk is that it may perforate the eardrum and cause temporary deafness.

He notes that it might heal by itself. “The deafness is temporary. These patients have more than 90 per cent chance of a complete healing of ear drum without any treatment as the perforation was caused by an injury and not an infection.” Kumar told DT News.

“The notion that all wax could be removed using cotton buds is false. Earwax is mainly formed in the outer part of the ear, so prodding your ears with buds only pushes the wax deeper, close to the ear drum. The skin of the ear canal and the eardrum is very thin and fragile and can be easily injured. Therefore, ‘cleaning’ with buds should be avoided,” he said.

“Earwax in normal amounts is good as it serves to coat the ear skin and acts as a temporary water repellent. The absence of earwax may cause dry, itchy ears. The ears self-cleanse by “shedding off” ear canal skin from the eardrum to the ear opening. In this way, the old earwax constantly come out of the ear as flakes,” he added.

“Under ideal circumstances, one should never have to clean the ear canals. However, when wax has accumulated to a sufficient degree, it blocks the ear canal (and hearing), then it may be removed by an ENT physician, preferably by vacuum or with special instruments. Sometimes eardrops may have to be used to soften the wax, but if the patient already has a hole in his ear drum, using drops may cause pain and infection of the middle ear,” Kumar stressed.

Dr. Kumar also recommended that those who have excess ear wax should get their ears cleaned by an ENT specialist once in a year.

Photo Caption: Cotton buds may perforate the eardrum and cause deafness

Dr. Avneesh Kumar

Cotton buds can make you deaf!

Editorial Team Legacy

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