A content creator recently shared advice on Instagram suggesting people coat cotton swabs with oil before cleaning their ears. While acknowledging that many ignore medical warnings about inserting objects into ears, she claimed oil could reduce risks by acting as a lubricant to pull out wax without pushing it deeper. However, ear, nose and throat specialists strongly disagree with this method. Medical experts explain that using cotton swabs, whether dry or oiled, disrupts the ear's natural self-cleaning process and can push wax deeper into the canal. This creates risks including impacted wax, hearing loss, pain, and eardrum damage. Adding oil to swabs does not eliminate these dangers and introduces new problems. Safe alternatives include over-the-counter wax-softening drops or professional removal methods such as micro-suction, manual extraction, or controlled irrigation performed by healthcare providers under direct visualization.
Medical Experts Warn Against Cotton Swab Use With Oil
An ENT specialist from Apollo Hospital clarified that inserting cotton swabs with or without oil is never advisable. The ear canal naturally cleans itself as skin migrates outward, carrying wax and debris. Using swabs acts like a ramrod, pushing most wax deeper into the sensitive bony area near the eardrum. This causes cerumen impaction, leading to hearing loss, pain, ringing, and dizziness. The notion that oil reduces risk is fundamentally flawed because the danger is not friction but the mechanical force pushing wax inward. While oil drops alone can soften hardened wax through cerumenolysis, combining oil with swabs creates an unsafe delivery method that shows misunderstanding of ear anatomy.
Source: Link