Ear clearing question?

[Midnight Star]

I had a pretty good spell of "no water" anything. When I first started my pool training again (swimming and breath hold exercises) my ears would hurt just going down to 10ft. What I would do before diving into the water is to clear them using either the "hold nose" and yawn (with the mouth closed - what I was looking for was jaw movement instead of an actual inhaled yawn) at least 3 times to lightly "pop" my ears (opening the eustacian tube). After about 3 months in the pool, my ears clear automatically as I descend (unless i'm diving and decend really fast). All I have to do now is flex the area around the tube. A few people are known to have an "ear clearing" problem, in that they can't seem to do it even in the more shallow depths. If youve hurt your ear at depth, you might consider having a physician look at the drum to make sure theres no tears or damage. On a second tank repetitive dive about 3 weeks ago, I had the same problem ... started to descend (after coming to the surface a few times to look around - I was playing with my new compass) my left ear wouldnt clear no matter what I tried to do - from yawning to gently blowing air with my mouth and nose closed. I just had to end the dive and diving for the weekend.

For me, the best training for ear clearing is in the pool. Not using scuba, but just free diving and swimming underwater ... my ears became accustomed to clearing themselves. Good luck and enjoy diving

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Mike.

 

[red_barbarian]

I find if I clear my ears at the surface w/ my head out of the water, I rarely have problems going down. I also have small ear tubes, and notice water temps play a large role in my ability to clear. The warmer the water the easier it is. If it's cold descend slower and clear before you feel anything.

 

[budgy]

Try to clear your ears on the surface first, because if your ear drums are not so flexable, by the time you feel pressure on your ears and need to clear them, its to late. Try clearing your ears, with every breath cycle on decent and descend slowly. It took time to learn and a fair bit of practice, but I clear my ears hands free.

 

[MasterGoa]

Hi All,

I just finished my first 3 open water dives and MY EARS HURT!!!!! I had a lot of trouble getting them to clear and am looking for suggestions for tomorrow. My last dive was a lot better because I started clearing them early but I just can't seem to get the hang of getting them to clear by plugging my nose. Above the water, I usually just yawn but that seems to cause other unwanted problems underwater, lol.

Put two drops of sweet almond oil in each ear before
you go out.

Do not think, just go out and do it.

Come back here and tell us how it went.

MG

 

[Fordan]

What works for you to clear your ears on a airplane may not be enough for clearing while diving. A commercial aircraft is pressurized to the ambient pressure at about 8000 feet, so a plane trip take you from 1 atmosphere on the ground to .7 atmospheres at altitude and back to 1 atmosphere on the ground. Diving from the surface down to 33 feet changes the pressure from 1 atmosphere to 2 atmospheres.

I was having equalization problems on my first OW dives. I watched the video listed above, and realized I wasn't doing the Valsalva Maneuver with enough force. After watching that and practicing the maneuver a bit on land, I haven't had any issues other than sometimes trying to descend too quickly, which is fixed by heading back up a foot or two and repeating the maneuver.

The techniques I normally use on an airplane are useful when diving once I've reached my intended depth and am making small changes in depth slowly.