Will digging your ears hurt your eardrum?

The health of the ears is very fragile, so everyone must pay attention to their ear health. When cleaning earwax, you must pay attention to the tools and techniques, because the skin of the ear canal and the eardrum are very fragile, and a moderate amount of earwax is good for the ears, so you must take these precautions when cleaning earwax, and also keep the ear canal dry.

1. Earwax prevents itchy ears

One of the actual functions of earwax is to lubricate the ears, just as tears lubricate the eyes. The right amount of earwax can prevent your ears from becoming dry and itchy.

2. Picking your ears does more harm than good

This sticky substance is made up of lubricating secretions, sloughed skin cells, dirt, and dust, and most earwax can be cleared out on its own. Every movement of the jaw (whether talking or chewing) can push earwax out of the ear canal, without the need for a cotton swab. In fact, trying to clean earwax may do more harm than good and is likely to push wax further into the ear canal instead of clearing it out. Most experts recommend that people ignore earwax unless it affects your hearing.

3. Earwax reflects the smell of sweat

Some people have moister earwax, while others have drier earwax. If your earwax is white and flaky, it means your sweat won't smell that bad, because it indicates that your body lacks substances that cause body odor; if your earwax is dark and sticky, it means your sweat smells bad.

4. Earwax varies by race

Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia found that, like sweat, compounds in earwax differ between races: the amount of odor-producing molecules in the earwax of Caucasians is generally higher than that of East Asians.

5. Stress or fear can increase earwax secretion

The glands in the ear that help produce earwax are called apocrine glands, and the apocrine glands (also called apocrine glands) are also responsible for producing smelly sweat. According to the American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association, stress stimulates the apocrine glands to secrete sweat and also causes them to produce more earwax.

6. "Water and cotton swabs" is the most effective way to clean

Be careful not to use tools with hard materials to remove earwax, and don't use candles to burn earwax, otherwise it will cause burns, blockage of the ear canal or perforation of the eardrum. If you must clean your ears, it is safer and cleaner to rinse them with a small amount of warm water in the shower and then dry the ear canal with a sterile cotton swab.