GP explains how to safely clean your ears: ‘Using cotton buds can lead to devastating cases of tinnitus’
When it comes to cleaning our ears, mindlessly poking at the wax with a cotton bud could be doing more harm than good, a leading GP has warned.
Dr Suraj Kukadia, a 33-year-old NHS GP from Hertfordshire—who goes by Dr Sooj on social media—said he’s ‘seen and heard of many horror stories’ about people trying to clean their ears with cotton buds despite experts long warning against it.
In a recent video he posted on TikTok to his nearly 300,000 followers, Dr Sooj explained: ‘I’ve seen lots of people who have used cotton buds to ‘clean’ their ears, but have unwittingly impacted the wax against their eardrum, which has led to reduced hearing, dizziness and tinnitus.
‘Cotton buds, Q-tips or ear candles or metal tools can make it worse by pushing wax deeper into the canal or by damaging the ear canal itself.’
Tinnitus is the medical term for hearing noises, such as ringing, buzzing or hissing, that are not caused by an outside source.
It occurs due to damage to the cochlear hair cells in the inner ear, which stretch and contract in accordance with sound-induced vibrations.
The damage forces other parts of the ear to overwork to compensate for the loss of function, which leads to tinnitus and eventually chronic hearing loss.
According to Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), around one in 7 UK adults has tinnitus, and treatment options limited to learning how to cope with the condition, or undergoing sound therapy to retrain the brain.
NHS GP Dr Sooj says cotton buds can cause havoc with your ears, and hearing
But being left with an incurable hearing condition isn’t the only risk that comes with a good old dig-about.
Dr Sooj added he has seen people with nasty infections, and heard of others who had been left temporarily deaf after tearing a hole in their eardrum.
He said: ‘I’ve also seen someone who has done something similar and then a couple of days later developed otitis externa—an infection of their outer ear canal.
‘They had pain and discharge from the canal.
‘It can also cause someone to burst their eardrum, and I’ve heard about this happening, but I have never seen it myself.’
However, not using cotton buds—or Q-tips as they are known in the US—doesn’t mean that you need to resign yourself to having dirty ears.
Instead, he suggests using liquid remedies which can easily roll through the ear canal and help to shift wax and debris more gently.
He said: ‘At home the safest option is to use things like olive oil or sodium bicarbonate ear drops – and that’s only if we are sure that you have excessive ear wax.
Diggig around can cause damage to the sensitive areas of the inner ear
He revealed the safe way to remove it at home in a recent video posted on TikTok to his nearly 300,000 followers
‘Then you can use a few drops into the affected ear twice a day for up to four weeks. This will help to soften the wax, and then hopefully it will just naturally start to come out.’
Dr Sooj also urged people to ‘remember there is a correct way to use ear drops so it doesn’t just come straight out of your ear canal and run down your face’.
The NHS says the first thing to do when using ear drops is to read the instructions, check which ear it need to be applied to and wash and dry your hands.
Then it says to warm the ear-drop bottle by holding it in your hands for a few minutes and shaking the bottle well.
It advises asking someone—with washed hands—to administer the drops, before either lying on your side or with your head tilted so that the ear that needs drops is facing upwards.
Once lying down, it says to gently pull your earlobe upwards and away from your neck, before either you or they squeeze the correct number of drops into the ear.
When this is done, you should keep your head tilted for about five minutes to allow the drops to spread within the ear.
The last step is to straighten your head and wipe away any extra liquid with a clean tissue before washing your hands again.
While using ear drops the NHS also says to not go swimming to avoid water getting into your ear and to be careful when washing your hair for this reason.
But, if ear drops fail to shift the boulder of wax, you might need to seek professional health.
Dr Sooj said if the ear remains blocked ‘we can then remove it using gentle irrigation or micro suction.
‘But please don’t try a DIY extraction because your eardrum is thinner than paper and a small slip could cause pain, infection and even hearing loss—and sometimes the damage can be permanent.’
