โ€œA day doesnโ€™t go by that I donโ€™t see people come in with Q-tip-related injuries,โ€ laments Jennifer Derebery, an inner-ear specialist in Los Angeles.

And yet thereโ€™s a scary warning on every box of Q-tips. It reads, โ€œCAUTION: Do not enter ear canal. โ€ฆ Entering the ear canal could cause injury.โ€ How is it that the one thing most people do with cotton swabs is also the thing manufacturers explicitly warn them not to do? Itโ€™s not just that people do damage to their ears, itโ€™s that they keep doing damage.

Some even call it an addiction. On an online forum, Q-tip user associates ear swabbing with dependency: โ€œHow can I detox from my Q-tips addiction?โ€ MADtv ran a classic sketch on a daughter having to hide Q-tip use from her parents like a junkie.