Should we use cotton buds to clean our ears? Expert issues this advice

A professor of audiology has issued guidance on whether it is safe to use cotton buds to clean your ears.

Appearing on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday (09 April), Kevin Munro, who works at the University of Manchester, acknowledged how "tempting" it is to put a pointed object in your ear canal, but highlighted two main problems.

"You might just push the wax further down and it will stay there longer and set like concrete", he said, adding that you could "do damage by scraping the side of your ear canal or right down to where your ear drum is."