Tips to get water out of your ears

Whether it is swimming, diving or any other thing that means exposure to water, you may have the chance to get water stuck in your ears. Symptoms include the feelings of ears clogged, sounds muffled, or that water jostling around in your ears. Leaving water remain in your ears, you may risk developing otitis externa, or swimmer’s ear.

Reasons that water can get trapped in ears

There’re lots of reasons that water can get trapped in ears, such as narrow ear canal or excessive earwax buildup.

How to determine a swimmer’s ear

Generally, water will drain out naturally in your ears, as ears have a waxy and water-repellent substance called earwax on the surface, but if you have the feelings as below, you may have developed a swimmer’s ear.

• Itching or redness on the ear canal
• Ear pain
• Ringing in your ears and even hearing loss
• Drainage of clear, odorless fluid

Contact your doctor if you have one of these symptoms. To prevent water from getting into your ears, you can wear over-the-counter earplugs before swimming. After swimming, push out the water from your ears with some techniques.

How to get water out of your ears

• Tilt your head down while pulling your earlobe to straighten the ear canal so that water can come out easily.
• Lie on the side with a soft towel below. Rest for a few minutes and the water should run out naturally.
• Move your jaw by yawing or chewing gum, which can help move your ear canal where the water’s trapped. You can also shake your head or tug on the external auditory canal to give some extra assistance.
• Use a hairdryer in a cool setting to dry out your ear canals. Do blow from some distance or else it may burn you.
• Use hydrogen peroxide bought from the drugstore to dry out the ear canal. But don’t use it if you have a perforated eardrum or eardrum tube.

At the same time, there’re some wrong methods that may harm your ears. Do not attempt to remove water with your finger/fingernails or cotton swabs. They may push obstructions deeper into the canal, and remove the earwax of your ear, making it easier for bacteria to grow.