Questions tagged [ear]
15 questions
38
votes
3 answers
Do we need to clean our ears (remove earwax)?
Last year, I read on a newspaper that a research found that we do not need, or should not, clean our ears as the earwax comes out naturally and sticking in cotton swabs can damage our ears.
Is my information accurate? Can anyone provide a summary…

Oxwivi
- 491
- 1
- 4
- 6
36
votes
1 answer
Do trackers hold their ears to the ground?
There is a trope (in movies and cartoons and elsewhere) of Native American (or other) trackers are sometimes depicted as listening to the ground to presumably hear far away horses or other animals moving.
Examples:
TV Tropes: Scarily Competent…

User
- 461
- 4
- 5
22
votes
3 answers
Are bone conduction headphones safer with regards to hearing loss?
In this video, at about 1:35, a claim is made that bone conduction headphones are safer with regards to hearing loss, because the sound doesn't "affect the eardrum".
Is that true? I thought hearing loss is caused by damage to the hair cells in the…

houbysoft
- 323
- 1
- 2
- 6
18
votes
2 answers
Is there any correlation between the ear to which you hold the phone and the person on the other end?
On a Big Bang Theory episode (sec 56) Leonard is talking over the phone and everyone wonders who's the person on the other side, afterward Sheldon claims:
This should be fairly easy to deduce. He’s holding the phone to his
left ear. Ears do not…

isJustMe
- 2,510
- 5
- 23
- 31
14
votes
1 answer
Can listening to music through headphones damage my hearing?
Assuming that the decibel level is the same with and without headphones in, does headphone use damage my hearing?
I have found several articles that talk about this, but they don't cite scientific studies. A lot of claims are made such as
Some…

fredley
- 4,995
- 2
- 33
- 50
13
votes
1 answer
Can you "learn" to wiggle your ears?
My friend knows how to wiggle his right ear only, and I tried to wiggle my ears as well, but he told me that I can't learn it, it has to be natural. Is there any study on this, or is it actually possible to learn how to wiggle my ears?

Thursagen
- 6,175
- 3
- 39
- 52
13
votes
1 answer
Does ringing ears after a concert mean hearing loss?
According to this website,
Tinnitus (or ear ringing) is proven by scientists to be the result of
an alerting loss of hearing ability. The reasons behind this might be
varying from the normal process of growing old to an incident or a
…

Kenshin
- 3,146
- 5
- 25
- 50
9
votes
1 answer
Does sharing earphones increase the risk of middle ear infections?
A Google search reveals many claims that sharing earphones is unhealthy.
Marie Claire magazine provides an example:
Kelly Reynolds, Ph.D., associate professor of environmental health at the University of Arizona also told Buzzfeed US that 'studies…

Git Gud
- 301
- 1
- 5
9
votes
0 answers
Does "reverse sound technology" make headphones safer?
Purebuds Earphones claims that their use of "Reverse Sound Technology" makes their earbuds safer, preventing hearing damage. I searched for a scientific study of this technology, or at least a good explanation of it, but couldn't find much.
From…

Jeff Caros
- 191
- 4
9
votes
1 answer
How sensitive are human ears?
I read about this on a question on Quora, and found a source for the fact below:
When a pin is dropped, the sound reaching the human ear causes the eardrum to move by a distance less than the diameter of a hydrogen atom.
Link to Quora Answer
The…

Nemo
- 199
- 4
5
votes
0 answers
Does flicking your fingers while your palms are on your ears cure tinnitus?
Go90 published a video that was shared by George Takei on Facebook, garnering many millions of views.
It shows some anecdotal evidence of a handful of long-term tinnitus sufferers apparently being cured by a technique found on the Internet. The…

Oddthinking
- 140,378
- 46
- 548
- 638
5
votes
0 answers
Can ultrasound be passed over the skin to be heard by the ear?
The company Skinlearning claims (in German), that one can learn "over the skin" with their uSonic device.
Their site says:
So können Sie Ihren Lernstoff permanent wiederholen und damit in Ihrem Gedächtnis besser verankern und das ganz einfach…

Schkikli
- 411
- 3
- 6
3
votes
0 answers
Does regular earplug usage come with health risks?
SteadyHealth writes:
Regardless, wearing these earplugs in the long run may prove to have certain health risks as well. The long-term earplugs may lead to excessive accumulation of earwax and debris inside the ear, possibly leading to the…

Christian
- 33,271
- 15
- 112
- 266
3
votes
1 answer
Are the location of brain-tumours linked to which ear you use a cell-phone with?
In the meta-analysis Cell phones and brain tumors: a review including the long-term epidemiologic data, they find that:
The results indicate that using a cell phone for > or = 10 years approximately doubles the risk of being diagnosed with a brain…

svadhisthana
- 99
- 2
2
votes
0 answers
Can hearing aids "repair" hearing issues thanks to brain plasticity?
I'm 24 and for some undetermined reason, I have hearing loss exclusively from the left ear and this, from my childhood. Nothing (treatment, surgery, etc) can be done to cure my ear so I decided to see if a hearing aid could help.
My audiologist told…

jozi
- 131
- 4