Man Has To Have Broken Cotton Bud Tip Removed From Ear

An audiologist has warned people about the danger of shoving cotton buds into their ears after one snapped off inside a man's ear and became stuck.

Leicester-based Mr Neel Raithatha, who runs the Wax Whisperer YouTube channel, shared a video in which he was forced to perform complex procedure on a man to remove the tip of a cotton bud, which had become stuck in his ear canal. Lovely.

Caters

According to the clip, the man had been itching inside his ear with the bud when he realised the tip had come loose and was now stuck inside.

Mr Raithatha explained: "The client attended with a cotton bud q-tip stuck against his eardrum. He suffers from Otitis Externa [an inflammation of the external ear canal] and was using the cotton bud q-tip in an attempt to relieve the itchiness and irritation he was experiencing."

After giving the man's ear the once-over, Mr Raithatha discovered that the fella's ear was badly inflamed - such much so, the usual suction tool he'd use in a situation like this wouldn't cut it and he had to pull out a 'fine ended probe'.

If you're wondering how that went, Mr Raithatha added: "I managed to extract the cotton bud enough to then use crocodile forceps to extracted the cotton bud."

In a worst case scenario, and the cotton bud had perforated the man's ear drum, he could have been left with permanent hearing loss.

But alls well that ends well the unnamed patient, as he wasn't left with any hearing damage, and he was referred to his doctor for future treatment.

Personally, the whole clip made me dry heave at my desk, but lots of people are big into it and it has been flooded with comments.

One person wrote: "Does anyone else get the shivers when pulls something out? Like you can feel the patients relief?"

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While a second posted: "I could feel the relief when you pulled that out."

As a little warning, unless you want to end up in front of Mr Raithatha, the NHS recommends you don't use cotton buds to clean your ears.

According to their advice page: "Cotton buds only push the wax/debris further down the ear canal and can lead to impacted wax, which can be painful.

"Also, if the cotton part of the bud falls off into the canal, it can cause infection.

"The cotton buds can also scratch the canal and make it bleed which can lead to infection."

So there you go.

Topics: Viral, UK

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

@ClaireReid19