It is one of life’s greatest small pleasures in my opinion.
Cleaning your ears with a cotton bud just feels so good, but doctors have been warning us of the horrific dangers this common practice has to our ear canals and hearing.
Dr Kunal Karade, from India, extracts an old cotton bud that got stuck inside the ear canal of his patient with a sharp metal instrument, the Independent reports.
Thousands of people are admitted to hospital every year with injuries from using cotton wool buds in their ears.
When we put cotton buds in our ears, the bud pushes the wax down the ear canal towards the eardrum and impacts it.
The graphic footage shows the earbud that has been stuck there for five days after the patient complained of ear itching, ear blockage, cold, cough and seasonal allergy.
Every box of earbuds comes with the caveat ‘Do not insert inside the ear canal’, but millions (including myself) still continue to do it.
I’m not going to lie, it really feels like a sort of addiction, but I don’t want tinnitus so I am going to try my best to stop.
