A teary subject

[Mountainturtle]

I have trouble with over-enthusistic tear ducts when I equalise. I have no troubles with equalisation in itself, but even applying slight pressure to my pinched nose causes tears that obscure my view, and require me to partially flood and clear my mask. It is fairly annoying, as diving is a visual pastime, and it's hard to see much when you've got tears in your eyes. Does anybody have a similar problem? Will it clear up after more diving experience? Or am I just too sensitive?

 

[greg somers]

The ones I see weep all the time to keep their eyes clean.
I sometimes have problems with my ducts when I have a cold and am blowing the old schnozer.Do you have sinus issues?
Regularly Blocked? Try reposting this in the medicine section.Maybe the docs haven't seen it yet.
Cheers Ears
The gasman

 

[scubadoc]

The tear ducts function to drain tears into the back of the nose and function to prevent us from crying all the time. We produce tears constantly.

There are situations where divers can actually blow air bubbles through their tear ducts when they are trying to clear using the Valsalva. Other situations occur where divers actually have a blocked tear duct from trauma or scar tissue and get bubbles into the tissues.

Your situation may be that you are actually blowing nose mucous out into the eye causing your difficulty. Tears are usually clear and cause no visual problem.

You would be wise to have a checkup to be certain that you don't have some correctible abnormality of the nasolacrimal apparatus. If this is OK, then you might want to alter your technique for clearing - using one of the other methods that do not use nasal compression. There is an article on Equalizing Techniques by Allen Deckelboum, MD that you can download at http://www.scuba-doc.com/download/Equalizing_Techniques.zip