Prevention of outer ear infections

[ha5mth]

By then end of every livaboard i seem to end up with an outer ear infection (otitis externa). As a newly qualified quack, im pretty sure its due to not washing out/drying out my ears well enough after a dive.

What id like to know from you guys is what you use to prevent an infection?

I know of ear calm solutions, antibotic drops, pro-ear masks etc, but i'd like to know what you've used and how you got on with whichever method works for you.

Cheers,
Matt

[PeeBee]

I don't normally have a problem but I know people who always put a couple of drops of olive oil in each ear, and others who always rinse with fresh water after each dive, both seem to work.

[Sean]

I never had a problem but after every dive I use an alcohol based ear wash then rinse with bottled water

[Prometheus]

50/50 water / vinegar.Smell like a chip shop, but seems to work for me in warm water diving.

[cave_troll]

I've jsut had the first Maltese fortnight with no ear problems for a couple of years.
I've no idea if it was the alcohol ear drops i've started using or just luck.

[SoggyFox]

don't clean my ears out before going diving, scrapping with buds finger or anything and removing the 'protective' wax.
use earex stuff if i do clean them.
i have a bottle of swim-ear if i feel the need to dry them.

used to have problems but now i don't.

[Pigpen]

Originally Posted by Sean

I never had a problem but after every dive I use an alcohol based ear wash then rinse with bottled water

Funnily enough I do it the other way round, on the basis that the alcohol stuff will dry itself without me having to shove tissue/buds in my ear.

[GarethC]

I use a ProEar mask as I also used to get regular ear infections.

[GlennFord]

Ear Beer - 50% vinegar 50% alcohol. Leave in the ear for 5 minutes. Alcohol dries the ear and vinegar creates an acidic environment that the little nasties can't reproduce in.

[Arfie]

I've still not recovered from the infection I got 4 weeks ago

I thought it was OK so went to St Abbs for the weekend and it came back, off to the Docs in a couple of hours to get some more antibiotics to finish it off

I tried the ear calm in St Abbs on the advice I got on YD but it didn't work, probably due to the fact I was still suffering from the original infection.

Arfie