Many of us reach for a cotton swab (commonly known as an earbud) to clean our ears, believing it's the best way to remove earwax. However, what appears to be a harmless habit can actually put your ...

You've probably used cotton swabs to clean your ears. Here's why ENTs say you shouldn't. (Getty Images) "Don’t put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear." It's the kind of thing you may have ...

Earwax is a naturally occurring substance that builds up inside the ear canal over time. Despite its thick, waxy consistency, healthcare professionals insist that earwax should be left untouched ...

Wipe with a damp washcloth: This is the safest and best method of all. You can't really get inside your ear canal with your finger, and gently rubbing around the outside of it with a damp cloth is ...

It may seem puzzling that your ears — which of course operate best when they’re not clogged up — produce a waxy substance that sometimes seems to do just that. But earwax actually plays an important ...

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Cotton swabs “really weren’t made to clean your ears — all they do is just push the wax deeper down into your ear canal and this causes an impaction,” Dr. Tonia L. Farmer, who goes by Dr. Nose Best, ...