Swimming with a bulging ear drum can cause pain and end your swim earlier than you wanted. A bulging ear drum can result from swimming or from other medical conditions, such as infections or foreign objects in the ear. Fortunately, you can prevent or treat a bulging ear drum with medications, medical care and changes in your hygiene and swimming practices.
Symptoms
Swimming while you have a bulging ear drum could cause you to experience a significant amount of pain, especially if you get water into your ear canal during your swim. Due to changes in pressure inside your ear, you might notice some hearing loss in the affected ear, dizziness or vertigo, disorientation and difficulty diving or maneuvering yourself in the water. If you usually wear earplugs when you swim, the friction from the earplugs might further irritate your ear drum.
Causes
If you swim in deep waters or scuba dive, you could experience injury to your ear drum referred to as barotrauma, which results when the air pressure inside your ear is vastly different from the air pressure outside of your ear, explains the Mayo Clinic website. An external injury to your ear or head, such as hitting your head on the diving board, could also result in your ear drum bulging while you swim. Infections such as otitis media and sinus infections can also cause your ear drum to bulge due to a buildup of fluid and swelling of the tubes that drain the ears. Wedging an earplug or cotton ball too far into your ear canal to prevent water from entering your ear, could also cause a bulging ear drum.
Treatments
If an object is stuck in your ear canal, causing your ear drum to bulge, your doctor can safely remove the object. Your doctor might recommend over the counter pain relievers and prescribe antibiotics to treat a bacterial ear infection, but if the cause of the infection is viral, it must run its course. Chewing gum or sucking on a hard candy might help to equalize the pressure in your ear. Your doctor might advise against swimming until the bulge in your ear drum heals, or he might recommend that you insert a silicone plug or piece of cotton coated with petroleum jelly into your ear before getting into the water, explains the Mayo Clinic website.
Prevention
Do not stick anything inside your ear canal unless recommended to do so by a doctor, advises the National Library of Medicine website. If you suspect you have an ear infection, prompt medical treatment can prevent bulging of your ear drum and other complications, such as a rupture or perforation of your ear drum.
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