Hear ye! Hear ye!
Five things you should know about your ears
1. Loud music and other noises can hurt your ears so that you can’t hear as well as you used to. This can happen temporarily after you listen to a loud noise for a while, such as at a rock concert. But if you keep listening to loud noises over time, you could lose some of your hearing permanently. Loud music is more dangerous if you use headphones. If you’re spending time around loud noises, such as power tools, wear earplugs.
2. Your sense of balance lies in your ears. It’s controlled by a liquid in a part of your ear known as the semicircular canal. If you spin wildly or go on a spinning ride at the amusement park, you may feel dizzy afterwards. That’s because the liquid keeps spinning for a while after you stop moving, which your brain finds very confusing. You’ll get your balance back once the liquid stops swirling.
3. If you’re like most kids, you probably had at least one middle ear infection when you were a toddler or preschooler. These happen when germs get into a pocket of air behind your eardrum. The pocket fills up with a fluid called pus, which helps to fight the infection. But the pus also puts pressure on your ear, which can hurt. Germs get into the middle ear through the Eustachian tubes, which connect the middle ear to the throat. Middle ear infections become less common with age.
4. You can also get an infection in your ear canal, the part of your ear where you can stick your finger. Sticking your finger there will, by the way, hurt a lot if you have this kind of infection, which is called swimmer’s ear. Swimmer’s ear happens when water stays in the ear canal, instead of simply running out, and washes away the thin coating of earwax, which makes it easier for bacteria to grow. Frequent swimming can make it more likely that you’ll get swimmer’s ear, but you don’t have to swim to get it. If you get swimmer’s ear, don’t swim until the doctor says it’s OK.
5. Never put anything in your ears, not even a cotton swab. Earwax is actually good for your ears; it protects them from infections. And it naturally works its way out of your ears on its own. But poking around in your ear with anything can push the wax deeper, where it can get stuck. Plus you could cause in infection by irritating the ear canal. Anything sharper than a cotton swab could actually cut your ear. Listen to your grandma on this one: If it’s smaller than your elbow, don’t put it in your ear.
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