Can your finger reach your eardrum?

Have you ever tried to clean your ears with a Q-tip and wondered how far can your finger reach inside the ear? Is it even possible to touch our eardrum with just our fingers? In this article, we will dive into the depths of ear anatomy and explore if our fingers are long enough to reach that elusive eardrum.

Ear Anatomy 101

Before we start exploring if our fingers can touch the eardrum, let’s understand some basics about ear anatomy. The human ear is divided into three parts: outer, middle, and inner ear.

Outer Ear

The outer ear consists of two parts – the pinna or auricle (visible part) and external auditory canal (ear canal). It collects sound waves from outside and directs them towards the middle ear.

Middle Ear

The middle ear is connected to the back of our throat via Eustachian tubes. It consists of three small bones called ossicles – malleus, incus, stapes – which transmit sound vibrations from the external auditory canal to inner ears through oval window membrane.

Inner Ear

The innermost part of our hearing system consists of cochlea and vestibular apparatus. Cochlea helps in sensing sound while vestibular apparatus helps maintain balance by sensing motion.

Now that we know about different parts involved in hearing let’s move forward with main questions asked regarding touching on eardrums or reaching there!

Can You Touch Your Eardrums With Fingers?

Undoubtedly fingers are multi-use organs; they help us feel things around us more deliberately than machines equipped in cars or homes but…but..but when it comes down to reaching something as deep as EARDRUMS, not all humans’ hands/fingers have capabilities for performing such maneuvers like Wonder Woman/Spiderman etc. Unless you possess extraordinarily flexible arms/muscles that typically bend around 270 degrees or more than this clearance, it’s impossible to reach the eardrum with fingers.

Eardrum Is Not Easy To Reach

The anatomy of the ear canal gives a little insight into how far we can go with our fingers (or nails). The typical length of an adult ear canal is roughly around 2.5 cm, which means if your finger reaches up to the second knuckle-in, then you are already close to hitting the barrier where middle and inner ears meet.

Anatomy Of Ear Canal

Ear_Canal

Even Barbie’s hands aren’t long enough for reaching there 😉

That area comprises a small membrane known as “tympanic membrane” – popularly called EARDRUM. So even though you may feel like stretching out without regard for consequences such as rupturing or damaging tissues in-between, besides just being quite painful; somehow its very unlikely– almost impossible –that your fingertip will get anywhere near that delicate sheath!

Tympanic Membrane Or Eardrum:

It separates external auditory from middle ear space and vibrates when sound waves hit it before passing through ossicles bones toward cochlea!

Avoid using sharp objects like pens, pencils, cotton swabs (Q-tips), bobby pins etc., which could rupture eardrums by forcing materials deep inside ears pasts natural points of mechanical resistance & cause severe hearing loss while making jokes over some episodes of friends! If you feel like cleaning ears, be gentle with actions and use only specialized tools approved by ENT specialists.

How To Know If You Touched Your Eardrum?

While it’s theoretical to assume that without the necessary experience or training from a medical professional, most humans wouldn’t accurately ascertain if they have come into contact with their eardrums using fingers. Some clarifying symptoms can help confirm your suspicions of having touched this elusive membrane entirely on accident!

Symptoms Of Touching Ear Drum

  • sudden onset of sharp pain accompanied by loud popping sound
  • temporary reduction in hearing quality
  • dizziness,
  • ringing inside affected ear canals known as “tinnitus”.

If any combination of these indicators coincides after fiddling around close proximity within ear canal; particularly while attempting something altogether impossible such as touching middle-ear …set an appointment with some general practitioner/ENT specialist for diagnosis & management plan recommendations.

Why Shouldn’t We Try This At Home?

Trying out new things in life is always exciting, fun but being smart about what we should and shouldn’t do ourselves is critical too. While trying to reach our eardrums might seem promising at first glance – after all, we’d love nothing more than to have complete control over every aspect of our health- real-life interactions prevent us from living in purely idealistic worlds full-time!

Reasons We Should Stop:

Several reasons exist regarding why it isn’t advisable nor recommended by health professionals around the globe —and some obvious ones are listed below;

Risk Of Injury

When someone tries digging inside their own brains through earworm gaps using foreign instruments –or even objects anatomically designed for exploratory purposes during medical procedures; risks could arise besides irritating inner tissues :

  1. Possible perforation/scarring/damage/destruction caused along natural sensory pipelines leading ultimately towards brainstem area responsible primarily controlling balance (vestibular system) but also cues along with auditory projection pathways.
  2. Increasing the chances of bacterial/fungal colonization & subsequent infections from intrusive foreign substances may cause multiple serious complications to arise.

Unintended Object Insertion

If you happen to have managed past some critical structures deep inside; despite not reaching your eardrums use fingers, oils/waxes accumulated there due hygiene neglect might get pushed in further! That clogs up blood supply routes making facial nerves inflamed& high-risk scenario as well potentially leading irreversible hearing losses for life!

Other Health Conditions

people who have pre-existing conditions like tinnitus/vertigo/migraines/high BP etc., shouldn’t try performing “do it yourself” interventions without consulting doctors beforehand as change situations/dosages, frequency’s on results still are unclear why perform these risky ventures out of curiosity?

The Final Verdict

The answer is No. It would be better appreciated if we accept our limitations and leave ear cleaning or checking for medical professionals that come equipped with special tools they’ve learnt over years – thereby ensuring safety while avoiding nerve damage risks associated otherwise by careless unpreparedness! Think smart-keep safe people 🙂

Remember: Ears are precious organs responsible for maintaining equilibrium within humans’ bodies besides facilitating communication across boards between different organisms existing within our world naturally(kinda magical)
Take good care of them throughout lifetime—they deserve nothing less than it 😉

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