Swimmer’s Ear: Blocked Painful Ear

Have you ever been swimming and then suffered painful blocked ears in Singapore? As the blocked painful ear usually occurs after water enters the ear, this ear condition is called Swimmer’s Ear! Whether you go swimming in the sea or in a chlorinated pool doesn’t seem to make much difference as the infection of the skin in the ear canal can still occur. The ENT Clinic in Singapore (Novena and Gleneagles hospitals) is often inundated with patients who caught their ear infections from water exposure e.g. swimming, diving, surfing.

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The entry of water into the ear canal can irritate the delicate skin inside, leading to infection and buildup of infected ear skin debris. Although a course of antibiotic and steroid eardrops often helps relieve the Swimmer’s painful blocked ear, sometimes the ear may need careful cleaning under the microscope (micro-suctioning with a special fine ear sucker) so that the debris does not block the medication from going in properly. Antibiotics and steroid ear ointment may also be applied after the ear is cleaned, to help soothe the irritated ear canal skin.

Patients with Swimmer’s Ear in Singapore may also feel some hearing loss if water has entered the middle ear (space behind the eardrum) through the nose. Water buildup behind the eardrum may take a few weeks to get better. The trapped fluid behind the eardrum may become infected so a course of oral antibiotics may be needed. If the water behind the eardrum doesn’t resolve, then it may have to be drained in a short and safe procedure under local anaesthesia in clinic to give the patient some relief from the blocked or painful ear symptoms.

Dr Annabelle’s Tips to Avoid getting Swimmer’s Ear:

1. Consider investing in a pair of swim earplugs to prevent water from entering the ear.
2. No matter how itchy or blocked your ear feels, please don’t dig your ears in an attempt to make it better: It will only get worse with ear-digging!
3. If it doesn’t get better after using antibiotics eardrops, there may be too much infected debris stuck inside the ear. So please visit your friendly ENT doctor for a proper checkup of your blocked painful ears.

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