ESCURETTE

The National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Studies (INRAP) sheds light on the history of the earpick. In bone, pewter, lead or even ivory, traces have been found since Antiquity. In Gallo-Roman times, toiletries then included tweezers, toothpicks and bronze earpicks.

In the Middle Ages, it was said that "every well-organized woman had her fourgeoire, containing the escurette (earpick), the furgette (nailpick) and the fusequoir (toothpick)". We then say that we escurate (vb. Escurate) the ear. It was present in most homes until the 1960s.

In Japan, ear cleaning called "mimikaki" (mimi: ear, persimmon: to clean) is an ancestral family process. As in India, this method is developing to become an undisputed professional practice: we then find ear curators in institutes and even in the streets.

Abandoned in favor of the cotton swab in the 1960s (the effects of the consumer society ...), the earpick has been used for all time by health professionals.

Its effectiveness i…