TL;DR: just skip to the last sentence. here's a rambling novel for the rest of you:
i had chronic ear infections beginning as an infant (we're talking at least six per year, *every year*, until i turned 12. i didn't have another infection until age 16, while away at college...i went on to have infections so bad and often, that i had tubes inserted at age *27*, upon which, the infections stopped. but a few years later, the tube was still in my left ear, having not fallen out on its own, like it was supposed to. when my doctor removed it, the middle of my eardrum (half of the diameter) literally shattered, which left me with a 50% hearing loss in that ear.
i then went to a different ENT specialist (good idea, eh?), who said the damage was permanent without surgery, and that my only options for improvement would either be a skin graft from my *skull* (um, no thanks), or from a *cadaver* (holy crap, no thanks)...
the hearing loss was very irritating, and necessitated the installation of an amplifier for the hearing impaired on my office phone. that is, until one day (about three years later): i picked up my phone and it sounded like the volume was on warp 12. i went back to the ENT, who said that my eardrum had somehow miraculously grown back -- a bit concave, but whole again, and my hearing loss went down to just 10%(!). i was still infection-free from then on...
that is, until age 40: i started getting infections with a vengeance again...i'd taken so many antibiotics over the years, the only one that was effective anymore was Cipro -- a very potent drug, and my doc said if that stopped working, i'd be in deep doo-doo if i ever had a life threatening illness. then, about two and a half years ago, the infections stopped again (oh, why yes, there is a point to all this rambling, and here it is, finally!):
i suddenly realized (better late than never) that every single time i'd gotten an ear infection after age 16, i was *smoking*...and every time i quit, they stopped completely.
when i quit the last time, i switched to vaping, and the infections didn't recur! (and, to further document this phenomenon, when i fell off the wagon last year and smoked for about a month, i got a *raging* infection)
SMOKING CAUSES CHRONIC EAR INFECTIONS IN SUSCEPTIBLE INDIVIDUALS -- VAPING LIKELY WON'T.

(yrmv)