Face Numbness ?

[benny2036]

I went diving from shore recently, it was about my 15th dive. The conditions were not good and visibility was at about 1 meter. After 15 mins of trying to find clear water we pulled the pin. Max depth 5 meters.
Anyway about 20mins later whilst packing my dive gear into the car my top lip started to go numb randomly. First I though I had a reaction to the new snorkle I had just bought - silocone, but then it gradually spread accross my whole cheek on one side completely and my top teeth went totally numb also. Then the numbness started to turn painful and really got me worried. After about 3 hours it subsided.
A bit of research suggests trapped airpockets in my sinuses but at only 4.8m max i wouldn't have thought this would cause sinus barotrauma ? Interested to know if this sort of issue is common ? was it barotrama or something else possibly ?
I didn't have the flu.
BTW i'm new to the site and impressed !

Cheers,
Benny

 

[smellzlikefish]

Sinus barotrauma is a possibility. I've had blockages without showing any signs of the flu at all. I remember one time while freediving I got a squeeze and came up with blood in my mask. I was new at the time and it scared the crap out of me, but in the end it was a simple sinus squeeze and some broken capillaries.

Numbness after diving, especially from a shallow depth, could also mean the nasty E word-embolism. I think these usually produce more gross numbness/paralysis-ie stroke-like symptoms. Since yours went away on its own, I'm guessing sinus issues. Did you get any aqueezes?

 

[TSandM]

The distribution of your numbness sounds like it involved injury to the infraorbital nerve on that side. (I am intimately familiar with this injury, because it's what I did to myself when I broke my face last April.) Absent facial trauma, this is almost certainly due to sinus squeeze. Remember that the proportional pressure changes are the greatest in shallow water!

 

[SteveAD]

What about neurotoxins?

OP is in australia. Lots of stingy critters there. Rough conditions could have stirred up all kinds of debris including broken off jellyfish tentacles. A minor sting on the lip from a half dead nematocyst, if the OP is of less than average sensitivity, might explain his otherwise mysterious symptoms.

 

[sydney-diver]

What about neurotoxins?

OP is in australia. Lots of stingy critters there. Rough conditions could have stirred up all kinds of debris including broken off jellyfish tentacles. A minor sting on the lip from a half dead nematocyst, if the OP is of less than average sensitivity, might explain his otherwise mysterious symptoms.

Not common in Sydney though, we're too far south to get stingers. There have been several Irukandji stings recently though much much further north.

Dave

 

[benny2036]

Thanks guys for your replys. I would say also it was caused from sinus squeeze. I have spoke to a doctor and he thinks it was caused by pressure on the nerve channels in my sinuses.