Do your ears keep releasing pressure after diving?

[mcpowell]

You accepting 'wild guesses'?

You descend, ear hurts, you equalize. Repeat cycle. Your ear gets tired of this abuse after a while.

Equalize before you feel the need to. We all learn it over time. Ask me how I know...

This was the way I equalized at first (30 years ago). But now, as I descend, I stay after my equalizations almost continuously. Ascending is no problem as the pressure leaks out easily.

I think mine is more likely to be what some others posted as a residual pressure gradient. However, I can yawn and relieve the pressure difference, but then within 15-30 minutes, the pressure is back.

 

[johndiver999]

I get it at night after a day of hard diving. It is definitely a positive pressure build up in the ear. I always thought it was the surrounding tissue offgassing into the ear. Not associated with poor equalization.

 

[mcpowell]

I get it at night after a day of hard diving. It is definitely a positive pressure build up in the ear. I always thought it was the surrounding tissue offgassing into the ear. Not associated with poor equalization.

John,
Yes! That makes sense and describes it very well. It’s like a slow offgassing. It won’t develop to a painful pressure as I would think the build up of pressure stops the outgassing. But once my ears clear, I can feel the pressure begin to build again.

 

[mcpowell]

BTW, I am one of those people who has tinnitus 24/7 in both ears. I don’t know if that plays a factor in my post dive pressure buildups, but thought it might be worth mentioning.

 

[Sevenrider860]

DAN has a PDF document "The Diver's Complete Guide To the Ear"...
https://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/faq/download/DiversGuidetoEars.pdf

The document has an excellent bullet list that describes what can happen as you descend and fail to equalize early enough. When talking to people that state they "equalize" for one or more days after a dive. I suspect they are experiencing "fullness" resulting from blood and mucus because they did not start equalizing immediately upon descent and have suffered some middle-ear barotrauma..

• At one foot below the surface
Water pressure against the outside of your eardrums is 0.445 psi more than on the
surface air pressure on the inside. They flex inward and you feel pressure in your ears.

• At four feet
the pressure difference increases to 1.78 psi. Your eardrums bulge into your middle ears.
So do the "round windows" and "oval windows" between your middle and inner ears.
Mucus begins to fill your Eustachian tubes, making it difficult to equalize your ears if you
try. Nerve endings in your eardrum are stretched. You begin to feel pain.

• At six feet
2.67 psi difference. Your eardrum stretches further. Its tissues begin to tear, causing
inflammation that will last up to a week. Small blood vessels in your eardrums may
expand or break, causing bruising which will last up to three weeks. Your Eustachian
tubes are now locked shut by pressure, making equalization impossible. Pain increases.

• At eight feet
3.56 psi difference. If you are lucky, blood and mucus is sucked from surrounding tissues
and begins to fill your middle ear. This is called middle-ear barotrauma. Fluid, not air, now
equalizes pressure on your eardrums. Pain subsides, replaced by a feeling of fullness in
your ears which will remain for a week or more until the fluid is reabsorbed by your body.

• At ten feet
4.45 psi difference. If you aren't so lucky—if your descent is very fast, for example—your
eardrums may break. Water will flood your middle ear. The sudden sensation of cold
against your balance mechanism, your vestibular canals, may cause vertigo, especially if
only one eardrum breaks. Suddenly, the world is spinning around you, though the
sensation will probably stop when your body warms up the water in your middle ear. Or, if
you try to equalize by blowing hard and long against pinched nostrils, you may rupture
the "round window" membrane between your middle and inner ears. This is called innerear
barotrauma. Perilymph fluid drains from the cochlea into the middle ear. Temporary,
even permanent, hearing loss may result.

 

[Landlocked123]

I would have an ear doctor check it out just to make sure you don't have some sort of predisposition to it. Short of that here are the three things I have been doing for about five years now and my ears have never felt better. I am assuming you are equalizing adequately on the descent...

1. Limit the up and down especially at shallow depths. Once you get down past 20-30 stay there. Get to your bottom depth and do your dive. You would be amazed how much you can learn about why your ears hurt just by looking at your dive profiles. If you are up and down especially in the 10-20 foot range and then back down etc you are asking for ear troubles. The few times I have had issues over the years I could always tie it back to the dive profile. That said I have never had any issues equalizing on the way down other than on the 4th or 5th dive of the day which seems to be where my ears start talking to me.

2. Do a much slower ascent from 15 feet (or where ever you do your safety stop) to the surface. This one has made a huge difference for me. We are taught to do a safety stop and then "ascend" . Every weekend at the quarry I watch folks sky rocket after their safety stop. I am not saying this will necessarily damage you ears but if you do 4-5 dives a day it adds up. Take it as an opportunity to work on buoyancy. After the regular safety stop I ascend very slowly from 15 to 10 feet. I stay one minute at 10. Then very slowly ascend from 10 to 5. I spend 1 minute at 5. Then literally crawl to the surface. Try doing this next time. You will see its not easy at first. Especially the last 5 feet. Once you master your buoyancy you will be able to do it easily and your ears will thank you. If you can get to 5 feet and hold that depth you can do it at any depth. This lowers the risk of a reverse block.

3. Listen to your ears. Just abort the dive if they are not cooperating.

I hope you are able to resolve your issues.