Ear equalization?

[MHuntr2CFA]

Hi, I've been on about 8 dives so far and after I surface for a couple of hours I notice that one of my ears isn't equal. I can't hear as well as my opposite ear.. Does anyone else have problems with their ears? Any advice to help it? It's a very annoying problem because I love to dive so much and the problem seems to last for weeks.

Thanks


SWFL

 

[McGlencoe]

I have pretty much the same thing. My left ear doesn't equalize as fast or easy as my right ear and then after the dive, my left ear doesn't clear as fast. However I am finding that it is loosening up and both ears equalize and clear way easier now that I am into 20+ dives than when I first started.

 

[OkByMe]

I'm assuming you had your eardrums examined before you started diving.
I'm assuming that you don't have allergies to pollen or dust.
I'm assuming you don't have any problems equalizing on accent/decent.
I'm also assuming you never had to have "tubes" in your ears a child.

Any one or more of the above could be the culprit.

You may have a partially collapsed or congested Eustachian tube. There is one way to find out. Get a glass of water. Take a normal mouthful and start to swallow, just as the water starts down, pinch your nose. On the unblocked ear there will be sensation of movement of the eardrum. On the blocked ear, the eardrum will pull in and seem to stay there for a few seconds. Sometimes that method will clear the "full" feeling and sometimes make it worse. If that happens, and for some reason you don't think you are congested, see an ENT.

 

[dfx]

If it's just the hearing that's affected, it could be simply water stuck in your ear that doesn't wanna come out. "Swimmer's ear" ear drops (which are just rubbing alcohol) would flush that out.

 

[MHuntr2CFA]

Thanks for all the responses, I'm pretty sure it's not water in my ear because I've had that multiple times, hopefully my ears just get used to it like mcglencoe said. It's probably not a good idea to take sudafed before a dive right? I've heard it go both ways?


SWFL

 

[Quero]

Thanks for all the responses, I'm pretty sure it's not water in my ear because I've had that multiple times, hopefully my ears just get used to it like mcglencoe said. It's probably not a good idea to take sudafed before a dive right? I've heard it go both ways?


SWFL

I usually take sudafed before diving. I'm not a doctor, so there may be more to it, but my understanding is that there are three issues with using these kinds of medications while diving:

• You don't want the medicine wearing off while you're underwater and the tissue shrinking effect they have to reverse. This can produce what is known as a "reverse block" or "reverse squeeze" in which the air cannot escape. This can be very painful and cause injury. I use a long-acting version of sudafed for this reason.
• The narcotic effects of some drugs are multiplied in hyperbaric conditions. You don't want to get dizzy or suffer a narcotic episode at relatively shallow depths because your blood chemistry is altered due to the drugs you have in your system. For this reason, I use the non-drowsy version of this kind of drug.
• When doing a dive where the partial pressure of the oxygen in the breathing gas makes it easy to approach the standard safe limits (1.4-1.6 ata), which would include diving on nitrox or doing extremely deep dives on air, there is a possibility for drugs like sudafed to predispose a diver to an oxygen toxicity incident. This appears to be a theoretical concern rather than one derived from actual events, however, and I don't worry about it, at least not for normal recreational diving.

 

[WB2GLP]

Weeks? Get 'em checked.

 

[TSandM]

The most common cause of the symptoms you describe is delayed or incomplete equalization on descent. Many new divers are so challenged for bandwidth, with all the new sensations and things to manage involved in diving, that they don't feel the need to equalize until the pressure gradient has gotten fairly large. At this point, damage (albeit mild) is already being done to the tissues of the middle ear, with resultant swelling and fluid exudation into what are normally air-filled spaces. After the dive, the hearing seems muffled, and the ears may crackle or bubble with efforts to equalize or even with chewing. This fluid can take some time to resolve, and nothing has been proven to speed the process.

The best solution is prevention. Make equalizing a priority on any descent (initial or subsequent). If you need to put air in your BC, for SURE you need to put air in your ears, too. Equalize BEFORE you feel discomfort -- you can even pressurize your ears on the surface, before you even start down!

And I do agree that, if you have decreased hearing that has been persistent for weeks, you should have your ears examined by a physician.

 

[mod8521]

Just to prefix this I am a new diver. I am not a doctor. I can only tell you what worked for me. A visit to your doctor may be in order. Please correct me if I am giving incorrect advise to any one.

I had somewhat of the same problem after my first pool dive. It went away within a few days. I have trouble "pressurizing" my left ear. There is a video on you tube that helped my greatly. Search "the divers ear" it is about 45 minutes long well worth it. My problem was by the time I felt the discomfort it was too late due to a rapid decent by being over weighted. What works for me is to due the normal pinch nose exhale pressurizing the nasal cavity and make swallow. This is kinda awkward but with a little practice easily done. I would recommend trying this while watching tv or just relaxing around the house to get a hang of it. This seams to be the only way I can get my left ear to open up. I also pressurize on the surface before descent with head out of water and every 2 or 3 feet on my way down keeping the fullness in my ears till I reach my target depth. Also being oriented head up will help. I know from my first pool session and my second open water dive that if I get to the point where I feel discomfort in my ear it is too late. I did not go to a doctor and probably should have but after some reading here and other sources I attributed it to barotrauma. So I know I need to keep my ears on the positive side on decent since a change of just a few feet will cause pain. I have found my ears to be adjusting well and it getting easier to equalize though. Hope that helps in some way.

 

[highdesert]

I'm assuming you had your eardrums examined before you started diving.

Is this standard procedure prior to diving? News to me ....