Open Water Cert... Ears still havent popped.

[JohnN]

An alternate perspective. . . The OP didn't mention any pain associated with diving, just a feeling that his ears haven't "popped" on surfacing. My ears plug up amazingly quickly with "wax" (apparently about 10% of the population has this problem) and I have to have them cleaned out at the Dr's. office twice a year. Symptoms are much like the OP describes, "stuffiness" attenuated hearing. It is caused by the water expanding the wax until it occludes the auditory canal.

Home remedies are noneffective for me, a trip to the Dr. and some careful digging (by him/her of course) removes the offending masses and all is good.

Regards,

John N

 

[VoIPTeK]

I did my padi open water cert dives this weekend and logged about 110 min diving, never going beyond 45 ft. My last dive was on sunday so its been a couple days and my ears still havent fully popped. Is that something I should be concerned about? Any suggestions how to pop then?

I had the same problem when I was a little late equalizing. Sometimes when I would wake up in he morning it would feel clear but hen when I sat up it'd get muffled again. I just waited it out and took about a week to clear.


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[supergaijin]

OP: If you equalise your ears with the Nose Pinch method- do they clear and then slowly return to the 'muffled and full' feeling? Try but don't do it excessively- as TSM said, chewing gum is a good non-invasive way to work the inner ear.

 

[DocVikingo]

TSandM how do you pre-pressurize your ears?

Hi Roy,

Perform a Valsalva or other equalization technique a couple of times just before entering the water. Remember, equalize early, often & gently.

Also, see the post by Gene Hobbs (#13) that appears in the same thread as TSandM's "ESSAY" Ear "infections"

And watch this when you have a few minutes --> "The Diver's Ear - Under Pressure" Doc's Diving Medicine Home Page

Best of luck.

DocVikingo

 

[Divejones]

a word of caution here! absolutely not to scare you, at all, just narrating a life incident. me and my pupil (Young Lieutenant) were on a night attack mission with a LGB, on the way back at 40,000' he handed over controls to me, i didnt ask him for what, then at 5000' again the same thing repeated, and when we landed and he took off his bonedome, and there was a mug full of blood that fell down from his left ear piece, and the poor guy didn't even realize that he had ruptured his ear while doing Valsava. So!! valsalva is a double edged sword, needs to be done carefully, without much of pain and not with too much of pressure, any issues level out first, if problem persists tell your DM and ascend back and you will be back to normal

 

[FPDocMatt]

You may have injured your ears a little bit. ... that is caused by fluid buildup in the tissues of the middle ear, usually due to improper equalization, and it generally goes away on its own when the swelling goes down.

On my last dive trip I had drastically decreased hearing in my left ear after having had difficulty equalizing. I thought there was water in the ear canal, but when my ENT looked everything looked fine. Recently I visited an ENT who used to be a Navy dive doc. He told me I probably had traumatized the INNER ear. This apparently results from trying too hard to equalize. You put too much pressure into the middle ear, which results in high pressure being transmitted to the inner ear. Inflammation builds up in the inner ear, resulting in decreased hearing. It took about 4 days for my hearing to come back.

So what I learned is:

• Take as much time as you need to descend.
• If you feel pain, don't just equalize right there. Ascend a few feet and then equalize.
• Once you equalize, don't keep equalizing unless you still feel the pain (or unless you're still descending).

I'm at the tail end of the Cozumel Invasion, and have had great success with this approach. Which is wonderful, because I was afraid I'd have to give up scuba diving.

Last night on the night dive it took me 13 minutes to descend to 30 feet. I took my time. Fortunately Pete (NetDoc) was my buddy, and was totally okay with my taking that much time.

And today, after having had trouble equalizing the previous night, I had no trouble at all equalizing. Got to 20 feet within 30 seconds. Which is great, because that meant the slow approach when you're having trouble is the way to avoid damage to the ears.

I should also say that the ENT who had been the Navy dive doctor also suggested some other things, which I've implemented on this trip:

• Afrin nasal spray (decongestant)
• Fluticasone nasal spray (steroid)
• Motrin (Advil, ibuprofen) 600 mg 3 times a day (altho I've only take it twice daily)
• Sinus Rinse (or some other nasal irrigation)

But on all the other 11 dives of this week I've had no trouble equalizing.

You know, equalizing is a major skill. I mean, it's very important, but under-taught in my opinion. Perhaps because of all the people who have no trouble equalizing.