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Sound Advice for Healthy Ears
Why you might need to add earplugs to your equipment bag
Your ears do more than keep your goggles from sliding down your head.
In addition to gathering sound, your inner ear’s vestibular system, deep inside your skull, is your primary means of maintaining balance, equilibrium, and spatial awareness. The external portion of your ear, meanwhile, is sensitive to pressure and temperature as well as noise.
When you're swimming, your ears must work overtime to maintain proper functioning while accommodating the constant sloshing in and draining out of water. And although goggles are ubiquitous and nose clips have become more common among Masters swimmers, few swimmers bother to think about protecting their ears.
“A water-filled ear canal is the perfect environment for otitis externa, or swimmer’s ear,” says Colby Genrich, a sports medicine physician in El Paso, Texas, and a former collegiate swimmer.
A watery ear canal allows pathogens to grow, leading to an infection that causes redness, swelling, and pain. Most cases of otitis externa can be treated by simply allowing your ear to dry out and heal. Genrich recommends using a little vinegar or consulting with your doctor. He advises against digging around your ear canal with a cotton swab because it can push ear wax closer to your eardrum and further trap water.
If you allow minor ear infections to persist, problems can become more pronounced. Infections can spread outward, to your face, or deeper inward, perforating your eardrum and infiltrating the middle and inner parts of your ear. “Chronic ear infections can cause scarring that may affect hearing as well as lead to dizziness and vertigo,” Genrich says.
Swimmer’s ear is more common in children than adults, but dizziness is a problem for many competitive swimmers and triathletes, especially in open water where temperatures tend to be cooler than in the pool. A 2021 study conducted in Finland reported that dizziness during and immediately following the swimming leg was a chief complaint of IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 competitors.
Iida-Kaisa Manninen, the study’s lead author, said in an email that swimming in cold water can lead to what’s known as a “caloric response,” caused by an asymmetrical cooling in your auditory canal and impairment of your vestibular system. Dizziness while swimming can lead to nausea and vomiting and, as a result, dehydration and calorie deficits. And if your equilibrium is off, it’s harder to swim in a straight line.
The solution, thankfully, is both cheap and easy. Manninen’s study found that 91% of participants were able to prevent the onset of dizziness in cold water by wearing earplugs. Blocking water from entering your ear canal will allow both sides of your vestibular system to remain at a more consistent temperature, thus inhibiting caloric response. Manninen also thinks that earplugs may help prevent exostoses—also known as surfer’s ear—bony overgrowths in the ear canal caused by extended exposure to cold water.
Some open water swimmers believe that earplugs might even help them stay warm in colder water. Genrich and Manninen both cite a lack of scientific research on the topic, though Genrich surmises earplugs more likely affect how we sense water temperature.
“Water that’s 66 degrees is 30 degrees colder than body temperature,” he says. “Since water is constantly flowing in and out of the ear canal while we swim, the body continues to experience the temperature difference.” In other words, by plugging your canal, your ear is less able to perceive the cold.
Earplugs range from basic balls of putty to contoured ergonomic inserts sold by major equipment brands to custom-made medical plugs obtained through an audiologist. Manninen says that earplugs need to be tight-fitting to hold out as much water as possible. Genrich suggests starting with the basic silicone putty, which is easy to mold into your ear. He also recommends wearing a snug-fitting cap, which can help hold the plugs in place and act as an additional water barrier, though he cautions that all of that ear protection will also make it harder to hear, a potential safety consideration.
