Stop cleaning your ears wrong

What’s Happening

Real talk: Warning: This advice may cause you to rethink your pharmacy purchases.

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By Eric Alt Published Feb 7, 2026 1:01 PM EST Stop jamming cotton swabs in your ears.

The Details

Image: Javier Zayas Photography / Get the Popular Science daily 💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Whether shouted at you schoolteacher or dropped as a gentle reminder by a cautious parent, “Clean your ears” is something most of us know we should be doing regularly.

That’s why it’s so shocking that so few of us know how to actually do it. Case in point: According to industry analysts , the cotton swab market grew from $795 million in 2024 to $828 million in 2025, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 3.

Why This Matters

And yet, ask any doctor and they’ll tell you that sticking a Q-Tip (or equivalent) into your ear canal is the single worst thing you can possibly do. Why is there such a disconnect? We have to clean our ears, yet there doesn’t seem to be a clear sense of how to do it effectively.

This could have implications for future research in this area.

Key Takeaways

• So to help, here are some tips on how to effectively and safely clean your ears: 1.
• DON’T In general, your ears are pretty self-sustained.
• Tiny hairs in your ear ( known as cilia ) work with ear wax (technical name: cerumen ) to keep debris from entering your ear canal.

The Bottom Line

These hairs can also help to clear your ear of wax buildup, moving the wax through the inner parts of the ear to keep your ear canal open. In most cases, your ear is protecting and cleaning itself, so you fr don’t have to stress about getting in there and “helping.

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