Some of you might have experienced it already – some of you might have been lucky enough to not get it: an ear infection after diving This might not be the nicest thing to talk about, but it’s possible that you could get an outer ear infection. This kind of ear infection is also known as the “swimmer’s ear”, as not only divers, but also swimmers and surfers suffer from it. So for anyone who is into water sports – you should follow these tips and tricks from the Blue Season Bali team to prevent such ear infections:
- Never use cotton buds to clean your ears – ever. You destroy the natural protection film from your ear and maybe even irritate your eardrum. Especially for diving this is an unnecessary risk you take. By arming the natural protection film and your eardrum you increase the chance of getting an ear infection enormously. By the way – if your eardrum is injured, you’re not allowed to dive!
- While diving equalize early and regularly! You should do that not only to prevent an ear infection but also to increase the fun while you explore the underwater world. You’ll recognize that equalizing during your repetitive dive(s) even is easier than before which helps preventing ear infections as well.
- To reach the best dive sites you sometimes have to take a boat, so make sure to always cover your ears while out of the water. Don’t only protect your ears from the wind when you’re on the boat but also be careful with the aircon during your stay or your ride. This way you make sure that your ears aren’t getting cold.
- As soon as you leave the water you should dry your ears or if you’ve been diving in salt water, clean your ears with fresh water first. By cleaning the ear canal you remove the bacteria from the ocean water and therefore help prevent getting an infection.
- If you know you had problems with ear infections several times before you can use eardrops as a prevention for a swimmer’s ear. Medicated eardrops may also help if you’re already suffering from an ear infection after diving.
For us at Blue Season Bali those tips and tricks might help to prevent ear infections from diving. We hope that they will do the same for you so you can always enjoy diving to the fullest. Did you ever from an ear infection caused by diving? What do you do to prevent it from happening? Let us know all about it in the comments.
