Remember how we were always told to clean our ears? Apparently, that advice is wrong!

A new study is saying that cleaning out the earwax in our ears could actually be harming us. Earwax is in our ears to help us and protect our eardrums. Believe it or not, it actually helps keep the ear canal clean.

Earwax helps keep dust and dirt away from the eardrum and helps out by having some antibacterial properties and provides lubrication. Our ears pretty much clean themselves. Pretty neat right? It gets even cooler because the old, used up earwax gets pushed out every time you open your jaw and eventually falls out.

Now that we know all of that, here is the problem. When we clean our ears with a Q-tip, we are pushing all of that old, dirty wax back in our ears. That earwax that helped trap all of that dust and dirt just sits there blocking the new wax and could even start causing hearing problems. The bacteria, fungus and viruses that it collected can now cause infections and pain. So stop it!

You can continue to clean your outer ear with the Q-tips, just stop going in the canal. no matter how good it feels.

 

 

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