Swimmers ear

[motatoad]

Last year I was divemastering in cyprus
teaching discover scubas mostly and found a few members of staff started to get severe ear infections been in a pool every day doing the confined water skills.
It occurred to us that we were catching this infection from the pools as with kids swimming around in the baking heat and p1551ng in the pool,
of course the hotels wanting to save money by not cleaning and adding the right quantity of materials to dillute these toxins.
So word of advice if you plan on swimming laps at your hotel pool make sure you rinse your ears with fresh water THOROUGHLY after getting out, immediatley,
this does prevent any bacteria building up, which would postpone any dives you have planned as it becomes extremely difficult to equalise.

[Aquatic Mammal]

This is a major problem. I picked up an infection last autumn which took months to clear and ended up with an ENT surgeon hoovering my head out

[Ferg3333]

proear mask? pools are always problematic, I sufferred at the end of last year for around 12 weeks, mainly because the dr was a joke.

[ardhill]

Do those drops for swim ear not help stop this? Or maybe any ear oil?

I dunno, I am just asking.

[Aquatic Mammal]

Originally Posted by ardhill

Do those drops for swim ear not help stop this? Or maybe any ear oil?

I dunno, I am just asking.

I was using that stuff until my ENT surgeon said "do not put anything in your ears" but I'd think a little squirt of "Ear Calm" in the evening might just keep the bacteria down (after rinsing with drinking water of course.

For shallow pool work swimmers ear plugs should be OK just to keep your ears totally dry although I have such narrow ear canals that I ended up with childrens size plugs and couldn't even keep those in my ears!

[Prometheus]

This is a problem that happens a lot in the summer in the shared pool complexes in Spain, one of the tricks is to put a 50% 50% vinegar water mix in your ears, at first when I was told I thought it was a wind up , but since have found lots of the Spanish do this, also when swimming /diving in the sea It acts as a mild disenfectant and I think also as a surfecant to allow the water to dry quicker so there isn't the moist conditions for bacteria to grow.
The down side is you smell like a chip shop for a while.

[puddlediver]

I had problems with my ears too. The solution that I have found works is to use Doc Pro Plugs, you have to get the vented ones so that you can equalise. They also come leashed or non leashed. They can be purchased from music shops, I got mine from Johnnny Roadhouse in Manchester. I have seen them for sale on a dive shop site too.

They work, and they only cost about £12. They don't impact on earwax either. They need to be measured to fit you ears but once done you just re-order over the internet if you loose them.

Try them, they're good.

Lyv

[nickb]

I picked up a chronic ear infection a few years ago that put pay to my diving for a while. I eventually managed to clear it up using Genticin (Gentamicin)
If your GP is prepared to write up a prescription, it's worth having an unopened bottle in your dive kit so you can react quickly to the first sign of an infection. I've since found Swim-Ear useful for keeping ear infections at bay.

[jorawley]

can definately agree with the vinegar solution - got a rather unpleasent ear infection in kenya couple of years back.

Best advice is to rinse ears out with bottled water and then i use swim ear - i know some people dont get on with it, and too much use can apparently cause more harm than good but its the best £5 i've spent on preventative ear infection.

[motatoad]

I never got infected myself as I would rinse with freshwater after any pool dives, also some hotela have a lagoon of seawater on the beach front with a lot of people swimming around, also popular shallow snorkelling sites,
Anywhere popular with people always bobbing around all the time will cause infection.
I rinsed with bottle water straight away, my buddy used vinegar like mentioned, also olive oil does the trick too.