Many of us have a habit of sticking cotton swabs into our ears each day. We do it under the guise of personal hygiene, but do our ears even need to be cleaned in the first place? And given that the ear is a very delicate organ responsible for one of your five senses, should we really be sticking things inside of it? In today's episode, we hear some answers to these questions and discuss other important ear health topics. 

Hosts: Zach Moore (interviewer), Katie McCallum 

Expert: Dr. Kenny Lin, ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) Specialist 

Notable topics covered: 

• Everything you never knew you needed to know about earwax, including whether it’s really wax 
• Why Dr. Lin gets nervous about people “cleaning” their ears using cotton swabs 
• The history of cotton swabs and how we came to put them in our ears 
• How cotton swabs can actually make earwax problems worse 
• Whether any of the various earwax removal products out there can be trusted 
• How your headphone choice (earbud vs. over the ear) affects your earwax and ear health 
• Why it’s important to protect your ears from loud noises and tips for doing it right 
• What ringing in your ears means and what to do next

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