Q is for...Q-tip!!!

First let me say, love them! Use them EVERY SINGLE day. Don't know what I would do without this beautifully constructed piece of cotton...

Okay, there! I said it. Please don't tell any of the ENT's that I have to call on a semi-daily basis! They would be so disappointed, because doesn't EVERYONE know, that you are not supposed to put anything "smaller than your elbow" into your ear canal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, heard it a million times. But, I must admit that I have a very hard time passing on advice, that I myself cannot accept.

In the past four years, I have seen just about anything that is smaller than a marble, get stuck in the ear. Here is a short-list of some of my treasures: erasers, roaches, watch battery, pinto bean, necklace-bead, and last but not least (and definitely the prize-winner for "most-commonly-not-making-it-out-of-an-ear-canal", and thus the reason for this post) is the dreaded Q-Tip head. In the beginning, I really did start questioning my relationship with Q-Tips. I felt totally duped into believing that Q-Tips were actually there to help me. And you know what, for a little while, our friendship really did start to suffer. Until one day, I decided to do a little research on my patients coming in with "Q-Tips" in their ears. You know what I found??? They weren't really "Q-Tips" at all....no my friends, they were "cotton tipped swabs".

Seriously, I always ask now, and the answer is always, "generic Q-Tips". Hallelujah!!! It was a beautiful-reunion, and I have never questioned my Q-Tips since. So, back to the advice I now give my patients, and the advice I will pass on to you...

I love Q-Tips. I will never stop using them. If you are going to use them, they are to be used everyday. Not once a week, not every two weeks (this just causes severe wax-impaction in the back of the ear-canal). And please, please, please....do not pinch-pennies when it comes to these. Buy the real-thing.