Grammy always said never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear…
fantastic for bong cleaning
Ears.
They are for ears but they just can’t say that. I clean my ears all the time with them. My ENT says my ears are great.
They are for ears, unless you’re a fucking narc. (Lawyers ruin everything)
I often have ear issues and one of the docs has adviced against using them because they were made for facial cosmetics application or something like that. Hmm… and I still use them occassionally to clean my ears. I guess, their purpose isn’t strictly defined after all.
cleaning my glassware
You have glass ears? Neat.
Sounding
The first mass-produced cotton swab was developed in 1923 by Polish-American Jew Leo Gerstenzang after he watched his wife attach wads of cotton to toothpicks to clean their infant’s ears.[1][2] His product was originally named “Baby Gays” in recognition of their being intended for infants
From Wikipedia
Can we go back go calling them baby gays?
They’re OK for OUTER EAR stuff. Don’t put them in your ears or you could injure yourself.
They’re also great for cleaning small stuff.
Wtf do you need a q-tip for “outer ear stuff”? A qtip is a very inefficient tool for outer ear stuff.
they are for … cleaning small areas with a little bit of cotton.
An actual medical recommendation was to use them to clean my baby’s belly button while the umbilical cord was falling off.
I inadvertently clogged one of my ears with a Qtip, effectively making me deaf in that ear. I tried to wait it out, but I eventually started to get a headache. Went to the clinic, and they flushed my ear out. I don’t use Qtips anymore.
Same, I had this happen as a child and I haven’t used a Qtip for that purpose in a long time. Anytime the subject of qtips comes to I always warn people to not use them for that purpose, and I always get blank stares and a “No, I’m going to keep using my qtips, thank you.” It’s really annoying.
Dont be a waxpacker.
You need to slowly spin the q tip as you push it in. And at the same time spiral the walls like a basketball. These combined motions serve to wick the wax onto the cotton rather than packing it in.
How deep did you shove the q tip? I just do it on the outside of my ear.
I didn’t shove it that deep. I just tried to clean just inside my ear, which was enough to shove some ear wax further up my ear and clog it. I now know (and frequently lecture my wife) that qtips should only be used on the outside of the ear.
I use them to apply ointment to cuts. I occasionally use them to clean things that are too small for my fingers. I never use them for my ears.
They were originally designed for cleaning ears by someone who didn’t know how the inside of an ear worked.
That said, I’ve used them twice today already to clean the outer ear area AND to fish an errant piece of wax out of my ear canal.
One problem is that part of a functional ear that helps it self-clean is a bunch of tiny hairs that a Q Tip can damage. Another problem is that you don’t want to poke anything solid anywhere near your ear drum, because tou can permanently damage the sensitive components at the end of the ear canal.
😖 I still use them for the ears…
