Over-equalized ear?

[pauldw]

Ear beer.

 

[Allen-1]

Really good suggestions here!
I’ve found Frenzel easier to do without overdoing it, unlike with Valsalva. Staying upright on descent also helps.

I’ve had bad ears all my life and am running into a strange problem. Take my time descending, but if I do repetitive dives my worse ear does fine but I end up with barotrauma to my good ear. I stay comfortable on ascent but in the last 10-15 feet I get sudden gurgling from major depressurization.

Any ideas to try? Eustacian tube dilation? It’s the only thing holding me back from doing dedicated dive trips.

This is probably gonna sound like I’m trying to be funny. I’m not trying to be funny.

You said it’s the last 10 to 15 feet. Spend an extra minute or two at 20 feet or 25 feet before ascending to your safety stop at 15 and go super slow from that 20 or 25 up to the 15 give your ears extra time, opportunity to equalize

 

[IndyJack]

Ear beer.

I like the beer part but know I can consume significantly more the traditional way!
Care to explain?

 

[Allen-1]

Ear beer
50% white vinegar
50% isopropyl alcohol

Dries out ear and kills bacteria post dive

 

[tridacna]

This may sound wrongheaded, but I wish that responses to questions on this forum were limited to those from medical professionals.

 

[pauldw]

This may sound wrongheaded, but I wish that responses to questions on this forum were limited to those from medical professionals.

Medical professionals won't recommend ear beer. So to heck with them!

 

[tridacna]

Medical professionals won't recommend ear beer. So to heck with them!

That's funny. Our own @doctormike, (a legitimate medical professional), publishes the recipe for, and advises the use of ear beer.

Ear Problems in Scuba Diving

This is a site by Dr. Michael Rothschild, providing information about pediatric ear, nose and throat conditions, and allowing visitors to contact Dr. Rothschild with questions.

www.kids-ent.com

 

[IndyJack]

Ear beer
50% white vinegar
50% isopropyl alcohol

Dries out ear and kills bacteria post dive

Ok. Will skip drinking this but sounds like a good recipe.
Unfortunately won’t help a middle ear problem

 

[tridacna]

Ok. Will skip drinking this but sounds like a good recipe.
Unfortunately won’t help a middle ear problem

From Dr Mike’s page: “Another approach to prevention of swimmer’s ear is the use of 5-10 drops of a solution of rubbing alcohol and white vinegar after diving. Add three tablespoons of vinegar to a pint of alcohol. Unlike the 50-50 mixes which are sometimes recommended, this makes a mixture that does not have a lot of water in it. The alcohol dries the ear, and the vinegar makes the ear canal more acidic, which makes it harder for the pseudomonas bacteria to grow; you need very little vinegar for this purpose. A few drops of glycerine in the mix can help prevent overdrying. One easy way to make this is to add a small amount of white vinegar to commercially available solutions like "Swim-Ear", which is 95% isopropyl alcohol and 5% glycerine. A half of a teaspoon in the one ounce bottle is enough.”

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Medical professionals won't recommend ear beer. So to heck with them!

Medical professionals know that ear beer doesn't do anything for barotrauma, which is the most likely scenario here, and can actually do harm in the setting of eardrum rupture (no suggestion of that in this case, just an FYI).

Best regards,
DDM