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Using cotton swabs to remove wax from your children’s ears can be dangerous. The most common injuries are foreign body sensation, perforated ear drum and soft tissue injury. While most patients do not require hospitalisation, damage to the ear drum, hearing bones or inner ear can result in dizziness, balance problems and irreversible hearing loss
The two biggest misconceptions are that the ear canals need to be cleaned in the home setting and that cotton tip applicators should be used to clean them; both of those are incorrect. The ear canals are usually self- cleaning. Using cotton tip applicators to clean the ear canal not only pushes wax closer to the ear drum, but there is a significant risk of causing minor to severe injury to the ear.
