Cleaning My Ears makes me cough?

Question

When Cleaning My Ears with a Q-Tip, in certain spots it makes me cough?
Does this happen to anyone else? If so, Why?

Yeah I've had dry heaves before and that's what it feels like. There must be some sort of connection with your ear and your tonsiles.

I suppose saying gag reflex would have been a better way of explaining it.

Answer 1

well there is a cough reflex from the laryngeal nerve (off of cranial nerve 10- the vagus nerve) that synapese in the medulla and causes excitation of the motor aspect of the CN10 and thus you experience a cough... now here is where it gets tricky.... in your ears you have afferent (sensory nerves) that send info back to the brainstem and let it know what is going on in terms of touch and pain/temperature... so as these nerves are coming back to the medulla also as part of the vagus nerve which supplies the sensory to the external auditory meatus (ear canal where you stick the q tip) and the tympanic membrane (where you shouldnt jab your q tip) and thus these incoming fibers give off some signals..... this confuses your brainstem and the cough reflex goes off !!! this is similar to what happens when people having a heart attack say they feel pain radiating up and down their arm and up through their chin....it is because of a little bit of crossover in some of the nerves and thier nuclei in the medulla (lowest part of brainstem)

Answer 2

I know that your ears, nose and throat all have a shared opening. It could be that when you use a q-tip (which you aren't supposed to be doing) you could be pushing wax further into your ear causing that to close the airway that are shared by your ears nose and throat and your body's reaction is a cough. I'm assuming the cough is kind of like a tickle cough? If that's the type of cough your experiencing, then yes, you're tickling your throat through your ear... funny sounding huh? To prevent this, I would take a good hot shower. The second you get out of the shower, tilt your head and tug on your ear, this should help to promote draining of the wax in your ear. I would then take some t.p. or kleenex and wrap it around your pinky and clean out your ear this way. I was told never to use qtips because it can push the wax further down into your eardrum which can cause bacteria to become trapped which in turn causes infection. So be careful when you do this.

Answer 3

There is a sensory region in the ear canal for the 9th and 10th cranial nerves which are responsible for the gag reflex.

Answer 4

Never stick a q-tip in your ears. You could puncture your eardrum or push the wax in farther. Your ears produce wax to help trap dirt and debris so it doesn't get into your ear. As new wax is made it pushes the old wax out. You should not have to worry about the wax in your ears unless it is excess. If the wax is excessive or starts to harden use debrox drops to help soften it. If you feel you have wax that needs to be removed from the canals then see your doc and have them flushed out if needed.

Answer 5

My fiance and our son only cough when they clean their right ear. Our daughter and myself don't cough at all.
When I asked my son's doc about it he said it was just a natural reaction and nothing to worry about. He didn't say why it happened though. Maybe its just a super sensitive area, like a ticklish spot of sorts?

Answer 6

the ears, nose and throat are all connected. its probably hitting a nerve or something. makes me cough too

Answer 7

It is a common phenomena, which occurs due to common nerve supply .,i.e.: a branch of vagus nerve , which also supplies the external auditory meatus

Answer 8

my wife has the same problem. one makes her cough, the other dry heave

Answer 9

It does happen to me! I don't know why...maybe this will motivate me to find out.