The Surfing Injury You Rarely Hear About: Surfer’s Ear
3 min readEven though each individual surfer has spun a tale or two about surf injuries—a board to the back again of the head, a hand sliced on a fin, a dislocated joint following a specifically violent closeout—these accidents are really instead scarce.
There is a surf illness substantially far more widespread, far fewer mentioned, and likely noticeably far more dangerous: exostosis (aka surfer’s ear). It’s a dilemma that affects close to a single out of each individual 3 surfers and, if untreated, can lead to agony and significant hearing decline.
The problem is brought on by prolonged exposure to cold water and affects both younger and old surfers. When the ear canal is irritated more than a long period of time, it responds by developing bone, proficiently narrowing the canal and triggering hearing decline.
Inevitably, this bone advancement becomes so pronounced that it can direct to complete hearing decline and can be handled only by reducing out or shaving down the bony advancement, a course of action that calls for a 6- to eight-7 days restoration.
“As we have developed pretty good wetsuits and surf year-spherical in colder and colder water, the discomfort from the cold water is triggering exostosis, or surfer’s ear,” claims Dr. Ken Fujioka, a San Diego–based physician and avid surfer who has undergone surfer’s ear surgical procedures on each ear. “I never know why we never listen to about it far more.”
In addition to leading to hearing decline, the growths also entice water and lead to frequent infections, which can be specifically destructive for all those paying extended intervals in the surf. Now that wetsuits are extending seasons more time and more time, that hazard is amplified, even for more youthful surfers.
Surgical procedures is the only serious “cure” for surfer’s ear, but Fujioka notes that prevention is probable the best type of therapy.
See all those men in the lineup sporting the earplugs? Lots of, if not all of them, are hoping to reduce surfer’s ear and some really serious healthcare head aches.
For all those who consider earplugs impair hearing, a several firms, like SurfEars out of Sweden, have developed surf-certain plugs that permit sound waves in when trying to keep the serious waves out.
Fujioka is not sure why there is so small publicity encompassing the ear harm, provided its prevalence in the surf neighborhood, but thinks that surfer’s ear will proceed to mature as the activity becomes far more popular all-around the world.
“I am impressed at the amount of surfers that do not wear earplugs (my son integrated), and know surfer’s ear is no joke,” claims Fujioka. “I have experienced the surgical procedures myself and I could not surf it was no fun.”
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