Sola Deo Gloria

A friend and I recently had an argu… er… a debate about the use of Q-tips.  The argu.. er… debate centered around the question of whether or not one should use Q-tips to clean out the ear canal.  My argument of course was that it says on the box NOT to, AND that I have always heard to never stick anything smaller than your elbow inside your ear.  I know that’s a bit on the ridiculous side, but you get the point.

His point was a personal testimony that said he had been doing it his whole life, and that he was going to go deaf if he didn’t replace his depleted supply at home.  He also mentioned he had a friend that never swabbed his ears and almost lost his hearing because of a bad ear infection that could have been corrected by removing the excess wax with a Q-tip.  His personal experience, and proof-texting have given him an incorrect understanding of truth in my opinion.

I have found a great post concerning this.  The entire article can be read at http://reasonswhy.stlouisblogs.org/archives/001509.html

Reasons why you shouldn’t put Q-tips in your ears…

We had a lovely lunch after church on Sunday prepared by one of the guys at South City. During lunch one of my engineer friends really tested my memory of anatomy and physiology in his questions about how the ear works. Inevitably, the use of Q-tips will comes up in conversations like that, which brings me to the purpose of this post. Please stop putting Q-tips in your ears!
Here are the reasons why…

#1 – It says it right there on the box: Warning: Do not insert into ear canal, could result in injury (or something to that affect). If that warning isn’t enough for you, keep reading.

#2 – The wax is supposed to be there! Ear wax is produced by the ear canal to protect the ear from bacteria and foreign objects.

#3 – You’ll just push the wax back further into your ear canal. After it goes back into the bony part of your ear canal, it’s much more difficult to remove.

#4 – If you’re causing a coughing reflex (like Tanya’s friend mentioned in her comment) when you use Q-tips, you are putting the swab in too far. There is a branch of the Vagus nerve that runs just below the ear canal wall. Touching the ear canal near this nerve could cause a coughing reaction known as Arnold’s Reflex.

If you’re concerned that you have too much wax in your ears, go to a doctor or an audiologist. Your primary care physican or an audiologist can usually remove ear wax for you. Just stick to the idea of not putting anything smaller than your elbow in your ear!

What is your opinion??