COLUMBUS – Research bears out what moms have been saying for years: Nothing belongs in your ear except your elbow.
Which was mom’s way of saying “Don’t put stuff in your ear.” And she was right.
According to a 21-year study by researchers at between the Department of Otolaryngology and the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, 34 children are taken to emergency rooms every day in the U.S. because of injuries caused by that most ubiquitous household item, the cotton tip applicator, usually referred to by the name of its best-known name brand: “Q-Tip.”
“The two biggest misconceptions I hear as an otolaryngologist 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,” said Dr. Kris Jatana, senior author of the study, which examined data from 1990 through 2010.
“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.” Says Janata, who is on the staff of the Department of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
According to the study, recently published online in The Journal of Pediatrics, an estimated 263,000 children younger than 18 years of age were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments for cotton tip applicator related ear injuries during the period studied, about 12,500 annually, Jana said.
Nearly three-fourths of the injuries, which can include perforated ear drums, were the result of using cotton tip applicators to clean the ears, Janata said.
“While the number of overall injuries from cotton tip applicators did decrease during the 21 years we looked at in our study, it is still unacceptably high,” he said. “These products may seem harmless, but this study shows how important it is that they not be used to clean ears.”
The most common injuries were “foreign body sensation,” which can cause vomiting and coughing, perforated ear drum and soft tissue injury, Janata said.
About two out of every three patients were younger than eight years of age.
Serious injuries, such as damage to the ear drum, hearing bones, or inner ear, can lead to dizziness, problems with balance, and irreversible hearing loss, Janata said.