Ear equalizing problems?

[tvelinsk]

I have completed my pool dives and will be taking my OW as soon as it warms up here in Michigan, but I have found that it can take me several (up to 5) minutes to equalize my ears to the 12.5' depth of the pool. Will the time it takes me to clear my ears increase lineally with the depth I am diving? Are there some people who are never able to get their ears to clear? I am just worried that I have spent all this money and now I won't be able to dive...
I have never had problems with ear infections or such, and I was not congested at all during any of my pool days.

 

[tainosoldier]

Did you start equalizing as soon as you started to descend or after getting to 12'? I made that mistake when I first went down, I know its taught in class to start early, but the excitement of getting in the water preoccupied me. It was harder to equalize, and now that I remember to do it early, its going great!

Is it me or did all that come out kinda.................erotic

 

[Stirling]

I have completed my pool dives and will be taking my OW as soon as it warms up here in Michigan, but I have found that it can take me several (up to 5) minutes to equalize my ears to the 12.5' depth of the pool. Will the time it takes me to clear my ears increase lineally with the depth I am diving? Are there some people who are never able to get their ears to clear? I am just worried that I have spent all this money and now I won't be able to dive...
I have never had problems with ear infections or such, and I was not congested at all during any of my pool days.

I don't think you can make any assumptions about how (or even whether) the time required to equalize your ears will increase with greater depth, unless you know why you're having the problem you are in the pool. There are some people who cannot equalize their ears.

I would second the suggestion that you review what you are doing to equalize your ears, and what you might be doing differently - start equalizing sooner, descend feet first, experiment with different ways of equalizing your ears (there are several methods), and so on. I have never had a problem with equalizing, so never had to learn how to work around a problem like the one you are experiencing for myself, but those are the most common suggestions that I have seen. But there are a lot of people who have had to overcome the problem, and there is information available about how to do it.

On edit: Welcome to the board! I am sure you will get other more detailed and more helpful advice from some others in just a little bit. Don't get discouraged.

 

[MichaelBaranows]

I just started diving last month and if I don't clear my ear before going underwater I have trouble.

So I clear right before going down and then again about every 5'. If you wait until you are down to 10' you will probally never clear. And also remember if you are having trouble clearing try going up a few feet and it should be easier to clear.

Michael L. Baranowski
Sweeny, TX

 

[WannaLaguna]

I have completed my pool dives and will be taking my OW as soon as it warms up here in Michigan, but I have found that it can take me several (up to 5) minutes to equalize my ears to the 12.5' depth of the pool. Will the time it takes me to clear my ears increase lineally with the depth I am diving? Are there some people who are never able to get their ears to clear? I am just worried that I have spent all this money and now I won't be able to dive...
I have never had problems with ear infections or such, and I was not congested at all during any of my pool days.

tvelinsk,

Do you experience any pain? I had a similar problem during my pool training. If you have any type of allergies you may experience problems with equalization (even if you are not aware of them). My suggestion would be to go to see a qualified otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat) doctor that is well versed in dive medicine.

When my problem occurred I was in such pain that I needed an emergency procedure to clear my ear. The pain was similar to sticking a Q-tip too far into your ear but feeling that constantly. I, like you, was so worried about never being able to dive again.

Turns out that I had a blockage that the otolaryngologist was able to remove. I wasn't able to dive for 2 weeks while on steroid ear drop therapy. Now, no problems...at any depth.

Get it checked, and get wet! Good luck!

 

[Parrothead_Diver]

I clear right before going down and then again about every 5'. If you wait until you are down to 10' you will probally never clear. And also remember if you are having trouble clearing try going up a few feet and it should be easier to clear.

This is pretty good advice as I do almost the exact same thing.

1) Clear ears prior to starting descent.
2) Clear again just after head drops below the surface.
3) Continue to clear every 5'-10' until at depth.

Remember it is best to equalize more often then needed as opposed to not enough. And you should always equalize before you start to feel discomfort. After all, pain is your bodies way of telling you somethings wrong.

P.S. Welcome to ScubaBoard and the world of diving.

 

[pipedope]

Gee, I haven't answered this one for a while.

Go to;
http://faculty.washington.edu/ekay/index.html

And watch the streaming video, "The Diver's Ear - Under Pressure".

This will help you learn a lot about your ears and what is going on during diving, what can go wrong and how to clear right.

See if it helps.

If all else fails see a good diving ENT and get checked for physical problems.

Now for the GOOD NEWS.

Clearing for the first 10' is the hardest and most demanding, it gets easier as you go deeper.
Pressure is changing at the greatest rate near the surface so that is where you need the most ear clearing.

 

[Chotzi]

I had the same problem. It also took me a good 5 minutes to get to bottom of the pool. I have a long history of ear problems so was leery about diving to begin with. To make matters worse, I damaged my ears during my OW (perforated one eardrum and damaged the other :eek_2: ). I was completely paranoid about diving “for real”. Two things saved me. One, learning the method of clearing that worked best for me. During my first dive I met a man who said “try this” (after watching me try for 10 min to get to 20’) and he showed me a different way to equalize. It worked better than any other method I had tried. I managed to speed up my descent considerably. Two, I bought divers ear plugs. What a Godsend! Once I had those baby’s in I dropped like a pro. I will never dive without my earplugs. People may look at me funny but, hey they work for me! Just be sure if you try them you get fitted correctly and use them properly.
Keep trying, I’m sure it’ll all work out!

 

[trevinkorea]

Pipedope thanks for the link!

Just today I was told not to dive for a very long time by my ENT because of nothing more than mild alergies. My hearing was muffled and after trying some of the techniques mentioned in the lecture, my ears are clear and my hearing improved.

It's really good to see some of the other techniques and a good description of the process.

Looks like i'll be able to do a dive soon after all.

 

[pipedope]

I learned some things from that video.

If I had that video when I learned to dive it would have saved me a lot of time and trouble.

At least now we can help people along much faster and easier.

My problem is that I am one of the rare people who make way too much ear wax. If I don't keep my ears clean I will get a wax block that hurts bad and makes my hearing worse than it is normally.