A week does not pass where I have the opportunity to chastise yet another injured Q-tip user on the Ear Disorders Board or in my own clinic. I had two today, including one admitted bobby-pin user. I have a well-deserved reputation of being a venomous and unsympathetic opponent of using Q-tips in the ear, so I thought this topic deserved another blog post.

Now, I use the term Q-tip, a brand name and registered trademark of the Chesebrough-Pond/Unilever Company, and makers of Vaseline and other slick products, in the generic sense. Since Q-tips are a lot easier to say than “cotton-tipped applicators”, I will use this term. There are certainly other manufacturers of cotton-tipped applicators out there, but none with eighty years of manufacturing experience.

I always thought that the Q of Q-tip meant “quick” since others have chosen to bastardize this fine brand name in this fashion. I was surprised to discover that the Q actually means “quality”. Strangely enough, I also discovered that Q-tips used to be called Baby Gays; a name given to this product by its Polish inventor (I’m not going there) that would not be considered politically-correct marketing today.

Let me say up front to ward off the lawyers of this fine company, that it is not the Q-tips that are the problem. It is the USERS of the Q-tips that I wish to address. Q-tips do not harm people; people harm people.

I wish that I had a box of Q-tips to check my facts, but I have been told that the company has a warning on the box not to use them INSIDE the ear. That is a very good and responsible statement. Unfortunately, few people read the box or heed this warning.

I found the following statement on their Web site: