New Diver - Ear blocking Issues

[pipedope]

Pipedope,
I'm curious about your problem of too much ear wax. Could you elaborate on what you doc told you about this (assuming you saw a doc re: the problem).

The reason I ask is that my ENT has told me to never clean out my ears. Basically his view in regards to ear wax was....the more, the better.

Thanks,

After having wax blasted out of my ears year after year by the family Dr when I was a child I learned to clean my ears.

Having a solid block of wax in your ear is NOT GOOD.

If you are not having problems, then you are not having problems.

I DO have problems. The wax builds up so thick and fast that If I don't clean it out I will be deaf and in great pain.

Notice I tell people to get it checked by a Dr first.
I am tired of giving money to Drs just because. I don't need them to tell me what I already know.

I am sorry but any Dr that says the more the better is full of something but it is NOT WAX.

BTW does that Dr dive?
Have they EVER met anyone who has excessive ear wax?

I have met some seriously dangerous Drs out there.

 

[fins]

After having wax blasted out of my ears year after year by the family Dr when I was a child I learned to clean my ears.

Having a solid block of wax in your ear is NOT GOOD.

If you are not having problems, then you are not having problems.

I DO have problems. The wax builds up so thick and fast that If I don't clean it out I will be deaf and in great pain.

Notice I tell people to get it checked by a Dr first.
I am tired of giving money to Drs just because. I don't need them to tell me what I already know.

I am sorry but any Dr that says the more the better is full of something but it is NOT WAX.

BTW does that Dr dive?
Have they EVER met anyone who has excessive ear wax?

I have met some seriously dangerous Drs out there.

Hey Pipedope,

I hope my question re: the earwax thing was not offensive. I didn't mean to question or attack you in any way.

When I last saw my ENT I was having some allergy problems and was probably cleaning my ears too often. His instructions were basically, lack of earwax was much worse than an abundance of earwax.

Obviously a blockage like you describe is a completely different situation.

Mark

 

[ReefTrekker]

I had our course director (shop owner) tell some of my students with that same problem to take some Benadryl (after the dive, NOT before)......it worked very well. Something about congestion compounding drainage in the middle ear. (Ask an MD....I'm not one, neither was the CD)

Then again, they may have cleared up independently of the Benadryl, and left all of us thinking that Benadryl is the new untapped resource for ear troubles.....

 

[Dive1Dennis]

I had our course director (shop owner) tell some of my students with that same problem to take some Benadryl (after the dive, NOT before)......it worked very well. Something about congestion compounding drainage in the middle ear. (Ask an MD....I'm not one, neither was the CD)

Then again, they may have cleared up independently of the Benadryl, and left all of us thinking that Benadryl is the new untapped resource for ear troubles.....

I've been told the same thing about Sudafed. It has helped me when I had problems with blocked ears after a dive. As I dove more, and learned to equalize with less effort, I have no longer found much of a need. For what it's worth, I have the excessive ear wax problems noted by Pipedope, I often have had to get my ears blasted due to wax buildup, blockage.