Shallow ear drums?

[maltaman]

I've just started diving this summer and am having a great time. My 13 year old son started working towards his PADI Open water diver certification with me, but decided to opt out and continue next summer when the weather's a bit warmer. My wife seems to be getting interested but is very concerned that she could never dive much underwater while snorkeling as she couldn't equalise. Her gp (whom i suspect is a quack) told her years ago that she had "shallow ear drums" and therefore couldn't dive. As I would like to encourage her to try it, has anyone heard of this condition? Does it really exist at all? What does it mean? Thanks

 

[simbrooks]

Although this is related to a woman, you might find more joy from the medical experts in our medical forum, so i am taking the liberty of moving it there. I dont know of any condition personally of shallow ears, but i do know that before i learnt what equalizing was that i didnt do that on shallow freedives at the pool/beach and found it painful - no-one ever explained the whole pressure/depth vs volume thing with my air spaces until i started diving. Go see a diving specialist doc, one who dives or knows the medicine and is preferably an ear nose a throat doc. Unfortunately you are in the US, otherwise i would say call DAN (do you have an equivalent?). Hope the medical folks can help!

 

[maltaman]

Although this is related to a woman, you might find more joy from the medical experts in our medical forum, so i am taking the liberty of moving it there. I dont know of any condition personally of shallow ears, but i do know that before i learnt what equalizing was that i didnt do that on shallow freedives at the pool/beach and found it painful - no-one ever explained the whole pressure/depth vs volume thing with my air spaces until i started diving. Go see a diving specialist doc, one who dives or knows the medicine and is preferably an ear nose a throat doc. Unfortunately you are in the US, otherwise i would say call DAN (do you have an equivalent?). Hope the medical folks can help!

Thanks for the advice..I do plan on taking her to an ENT specialist. I had done the same before diving and he had checked my ability to equalise, so thats definitely going to happen. Am still interested to hear from anyone whose heard of this condition though...

 

[jbd]

Thanks for the advice..I do plan on taking her to an ENT specialist. I had done the same before diving and he had checked my ability to equalise, so thats definitely going to happen. Am still interested to hear from anyone whose heard of this condition though...

I'm not an ENT specialist nor a MD but did work in ENT surgery for several months. I can't recall ever hearing of a condition called shallow ear drums. Most likely your wife didn't know to equalize and the GP didn't know about it either. When your wife goes to the ENTspecialist make sure she asks if there is any such condition.

 

[pipedope]

While waiting on the Doc go to;
http://faculty.washington.edu/ekay/index.html
and watch the streaming video;

Streaming Video Lecture
"The Diver's Ear - Under Pressure"


A very good source of information on ears, diving and equalization.

 

[Laurence Stein DDS]

Thanks for the advice..I do plan on taking her to an ENT specialist. I had done the same before diving and he had checked my ability to equalise, so thats definitely going to happen. Am still interested to hear from anyone whose heard of this condition though...

Hi Maltaman,

I have never heard of shallow eardrums either. For what it's worth, you wife might actually have an easier time clearing with scuba than snorkeling. When scuba diving, the air supplied to the mouth and nose area is at ambient pressure. You have, so to speak a "head of pressure" already created by the air inhaled at ambient pressure. When snorkeling, you must pressurize the air in your mouth, nose and throat to ambient and then some to equalize the ears.

While you might think that the air in this airspaces is already at ambient pressure (theoretically it should be), unless you follow good technique, and allow air into your throat from your lungs during descent, there will be a slightly lower pressure here during descent and slightly positive on ascent. It takes time and technique to learn to clear the ears while snorkeling as efficiently as you can with scuba.

As you scuba dive, you might also find that the more you dive the easier it is to clear your ears...even it was difficult in the beginning.

Have the ENT check her out.

Laurence Stein, DDS

 

[maltaman]

Hi Maltaman,

I have never heard of shallow eardrums either. For what it's worth, you wife might actually have an easier time clearing with scuba than snorkeling. When scuba diving, the air supplied to the mouth and nose area is at ambient pressure. You have, so to speak a "head of pressure" already created by the air inhaled at ambient pressure. When snorkeling, you must pressurize the air in your mouth, nose and throat to ambient and then some to equalize the ears.

While you might think that the air in this airspaces is already at ambient pressure (theoretically it should be), unless you follow good technique, and allow air into your throat from your lungs during descent, there will be a slightly lower pressure here during descent and slightly positive on ascent. It takes time and technique to learn to clear the ears while snorkeling as efficiently as you can with scuba.

As you scuba dive, you might also find that the more you dive the easier it is to clear your ears...even it was difficult in the beginning.

Have the ENT check her out.

Laurence Stein, DDS

Great..what you've said reflects my own experience exactly. I was surprised when doing my PADI Open water skin diving module that I was finding it harder to equalise than with Scuba - much harder. Most importantly I think you've confirmed to my wife that such a condition as shallow ear drums doesn't really exist at all and she's held herself back for nothing. After a visit to the ENT guy I thnk theres a reasonable hope that we can enjoy some dives together in future.

 

[LubaScuba]

I've just started diving this summer and am having a great time. My 13 year old son started working towards his PADI Open water diver certification with me, but decided to opt out and continue next summer when the weather's a bit warmer. My wife seems to be getting interested but is very concerned that she could never dive much underwater while snorkeling as she couldn't equalise. Her gp (whom i suspect is a quack) told her years ago that she had "shallow ear drums" and therefore couldn't dive. As I would like to encourage her to try it, has anyone heard of this condition? Does it really exist at all? What does it mean? Thanks

Always suspect that any doctor is a quack until proven otherwise. The proper predive ear examination involves otoscopic check for presence of intact ear drums and confirmation that Eustachian tubes are patent. (ie the eardrums shoud move when one pinches the nose and swallows or gently blows) I did not hear of shallow ear drums but i heard of shallow diving knowledge of non diving physicians. You better consider visiting another quack. Preferably a diving quack. Vast majority of equalizing problems are due to technique and not organic. It is also more difficult to equalize while breath hold diving than with scuba diving as the former usually involves faster descent and head down position which makes pharingeal ostia of tubes congested and more difficult to pass some air through.

Best wishes

Diving quack