PSA: We found out the truth about your beloved ear buds.

There’s no doubt that cleaning ears is a universally and remarkably uncomfortable experience.

While most go in with the best of intentions, it seems more likely that you walk away with a blocked ear, 50 per cent worse hearing and ten minutes of your life you’ll probably never get back.

So if retrieving ear wax isn’t always foolproof, does that mean ear buds actually aren’t that good for you? And if they’re not, what the hell else are we meant to be using?

I enlisted the help of Julie Sutcliffe, the Professional Practice Manager at Connect Hearing to give us the low-down on whether earbuds are friend or foe.

Are they safe?

Naturally, the first thing I wanted to know was if they were actually safe to use. Short answer? Not particularly safe at all.

“I would never put one in my ear and our recommendation is that they should not go in the ear any further than the outer canal,” Ms. Sutcliffe told Mamamia.

So if earbuds are vetoed and that specific myth busted, what’s actually the problem at play here? Is it just that we’re pushing so much of the wax back into our ear rather than getting it out?

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A little bit, yes. “Impact”, as Sutcliffe calls it, is definitely one of the overriding dangers of the use of earbuds. However, she also believes their danger runs a little deeper than that, identifying three key dangers that surround their use.

“The most obvious one is the impact,” she explains. “For every little bit of wax you’re getting out, you’re probably pushing two thirds more back in further.”

Secondly is the irreparable damage that may arise through consistent use.

“People are really aggressive and can sometimes make their ears bleed which can lead to infections and things like that. But also, over time, it can make the ears a little more sensitive which can have a long term effect.

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“There are some hearing aids we have now that go right down inside the ear, like an invisible aid, and if you’ve got ears that are more likely to bleed, it means you can’t have one of those. That’s obviously a very long term risk but still a risk, nonetheless.”

And the third reason? It’s all about the quality of earbud being used. It’s not exactly the kind of apparatus many feel necessary to invest in quality in.

“The third issue is that if people are using a poor quality earbud it can actually fall off in the ear and that’s when it’s a problem too and you will need to go to the doctor to get that out,” she says.

What should we use instead?

So if we’re not using earbuds, what else is there to use? Or should we not be cleaning them at all?

It’s true that ears are actually self-cleaning, and if wax has reached the outer canals of your ear it will eventually clean itself. Despite this fact, Sutcliffe says she understands “there is a point where it’s uncomfortable” and that you feel the need to do the cleaning yourself.

If that's the case, grab a cloth.

"My recommendation would be to use a washer rather than an ear bud and I’ve found that it does just as good a job. You also then don’t have the temptation of sticking it in further like you do with an ear bud," she says.

Sutcliffe recommends that if you're using a washer, to make sure it's only lightly damp to ensure you're not actually adding more water into the ear than is already there.

And if you're tempted to reach for the candle to do some ear candling, exercise caution with that one too.

"There is a possibility of the residue coming back into ear after doing the wax handling," she explains, "but it’s not just a recommendation or a medical procedure that we would purport."

So there you have it, put down that earbud and pick up the washer.