I’ll start: my ear wax. Several months ago, I observed what I thought to be extra wax coming out of my ears. Since then, I can’t stop trying to keep my ears clean. Wash in the shower with soap every day. Stick my finger in there when nobody’s looking to try to get some out. And so on.

I don’t use q-tips, and I know the advice is to simply let it come out when it wants. But I hate cleaning the gunk off my AirPods! Stupid ear wax, I think I feel some now.

  • Sanguine@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 days ago

    Unpopular opinion: you can absolutely use Q tips if your ear canals are wider and you don’t just jam it in.

    What I do is start at the entrance and twist as I go in and again as it’s coming out. My primary care has never found anything wrong with my ears.

    • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksM
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      8 days ago

      Yup. My ear canals are much wider than the average q tip, so I don’t really use them as plungers, they’re more for scraping the sides.

      I am terrified of losing my hearing or otherwise damaging my ears (long story, not that interesting), so I simply refuse to use them as far in as I safely could.

    • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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      8 days ago

      A few years back I bought one of these on a whim and I’ve found it to be an excellent ear wax removal tool. Just take care when inserting - that’s the motion that can shove wax deeper or impact your ear drum.

      A quick Googling shows that there are a ton of other tools with a wide variety of shapes and materials, but this is the one that I can personally vouch for. Cleaning the wax off of the finned end after use requires a strong jet of water, that’s the only downside I can think of.

        • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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          7 days ago

          I saw a box of these on Amazon for $6. You’re really going to quibble over a few bucks?

          Besides, these do a better job than wads of cotton on sticks. So it’s worth a few bucks.