“Absolutely do not clean your ears with cotton swabs”

Saydam provided information about problems that may be encountered during childhood and adulthood regarding hearing, as well as basic definitions. Emphasizing that hearing is of great importance in every age group, but that it is extremely important for hearing to be normal and healthy, especially during childhood, Saydam said, "Hearing is not just about hearing sounds, but it is also a function that will form the basis for the repetition of sounds we hear during childhood, that is, for its development. 

Children learn to speak by repeating what they hear; children learn to communicate by repeating what they hear; they learn by using sound. For example, in studies conducted on children with hearing loss who do not receive treatment during adulthood, we see that speech activity is hindered in various forms in these children. This does not just stop at the slowing down of speech activity, but also leads to a gradual decrease in intellectual success in these children,” he stated.

Stating that congenital hearing loss plays a role in a large portion of childhood hearing loss, Saydam said, “Congenital hearing loss is a clinical condition that appears in various forms, with a single or bilateral change in function. Early detection of congenital hearing loss and planning appropriate treatment according to the level of hearing loss is of critical importance for these children to grow up as individuals who can give healthy and compatible responses to society in their later years,” he said.

WARNED FAMILIES ABOUT CHILD EAR HEALTH

Noting that the most important factor in congenital hearing loss is the performance of routine screenings, Saydam said, "There are also hearing losses in children that are not congenital. The most common type we encounter in these is a type of hearing loss accompanied by fluid accumulation in the middle ear; it is a middle ear infection, but I am not talking about a clinical picture with very noisy, that is, painful fever and discharge, as in microbial middle ear infections. These children may often tell you as parents about ear pain that is unilateral or bilateral, which they mention once but do not mention again for days,” he explained.

Warning families about child ear health, Saydam said, “You will see that there are hearing losses that you would not notice if you were not very careful. 

For example, you might not think to dwell on them watching television from up close, or their delayed response or lack of response to your questions or calls during communication with you. You might think, 'They are just absent-minded, that's why they do that.' If there are such symptoms, you should definitely have your children examined by an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Treatment for childhood hearing loss is shaped by determining the cause of the hearing loss. For example, in cases of partial or near-total hearing loss, or newborn hearing loss, it is ensured that these children have a change that can form the basis for communicable speech with useful hearing during the period when they learn to speak, by means of a device to be placed inside the ear bone.

Afterwards, in the cases of hearing loss accompanied by fluid in the middle ear that I mentioned earlier, medical treatment usually solves the problem, and in cases that do not respond to medical treatment, draining the fluid in the middle ear with various surgical interventions usually resolves the issue,” he included.

"DO NOT CLEAN YOUR EARS WITH COTTON SWABS"

Underlining that ears should absolutely not be cleaned with cotton swabs, Saydam said, "The hairs at the entrance of the external ear canal have a sweeping function that moves from the inside out, which prevents particles coming from the outside and materials that should not enter from entering the external ear canal.

It ensures that materials that have accumulated in the external ear canal or are considered dirty are thrown out in small pieces in a way that we do not notice during the day. 

I emphasize this especially because while we have such a function, if we use cotton swabs to clean the external ear canal, we actually block the existing function at once. On the other hand, based on the main principle that you cannot say a place you cannot see is clean, we are not cleaning the external ear canal, but rather causing the existing discharge to go further in and making the problem more complicated. Therefore, it is beneficial not to use the apparatuses also called cotton swabs for the purpose of cleaning the external ear canal, especially deeply,” he said.