Hi Cancun Mark,
Some comments on your response:
1. "What you want to avoid is salt crystals forming in your ears, especially if you have ear wax in there as the crystals can break the skin and allow bacteria into the subcutaneous cells and cause infection."
Otitis externa is contracted by swimming in fresh and chlorinated pool water as well as salt water. Salt crystals forming in the ear canal really isn't the issue--constant moisture is the base problem. Water swells the cells lining the ear canal and eventually these cells pull apart, allowing bacteria normally found in ear canal to move subcutaneously.
BTW, it's unclear what is meant by "...especially if you have ear wax in there" as all normal ear canals are protected by ear wax.
2. "After a days (sic) diving, clean them out with (dilute) hydrogen peroxide, not the stuff you bleach your hair with, but the stuff you sterilise (sic) cuts with."
A couple of issues. First, most cases of otitis externa are caused by water-loving bacteria and fungi. What hydrogen peroxide does in the ear canal is liberate oxygen (and causes the "kinda pops and crackles"). While this does have a transient and mild antibacterial effect, when the process is complete it leaves behind WATER.
Second, hydrogen peroxide likely is a worse offender than alcohol when it comes to removing too much ear wax and leaving the canal increasingly prone to irritatition and infection.
3. "If you have itching that persists more than an hour or so, then you need a topical antibiotic eardrop, neomycin sulpate (sic), bacitracin, something like that,...."
What antimicrobial product is used to treat otitis externa depends upon the causative organism.
Regards,
DocVikingo
