Tubes as a child

[tun o fundra]

I had tubes in my ears as a child, I have heard this could affect clearing your ears because of scarring. My parents said that the tubes came and went normaly and I only needed one round of them. I have no problems clearing on airplanes before but I was curious if it was same as diving.

Thanks

 

[fisherdvm]

I had a theory once that kids with small head circumference would be more prone to ear infection.... Never had a chance to do my study...

There are many reasons why kids might have ear infections that don't clear, and a small eustachian tube is one, and I think some folks worried about enlarged adenoids. The worry about scarring does make sense, but if you are fine now, I wonder if it didn't occur.

Alot of studies of eustachian dysfunction and its treatment were done on airplane passengers, so I think you can extrapolate it to diving. As it also involve the change in atmospheric pressure exerted across the ear drum.

I'd say give diving a try.... As long as you can clear easily in a 14 ft pool, you should do fine at 60 ft too.... My guess. A student we had in AOW struggles with clearing his ears on each dives. Bugged the heck out of me that he continues to dive. The last time I dove with him after he completed the AOW, he said he finally figured out how to clear his ear... Apparently practice make perfect on ear clearing too.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I had a large head but still had ear problems. My parents also smoked like chimneys. I moved out about the same time I started diving and have had maybe 1 ear infection in the last 25 years. I am betting it had a lot to do with second hand smoke.

So...the small headed kids have more ear infection theory may still hold water, but there are a lot of potentially confounding varibales - just like my problem of trying to prove that second hand smoke causes people to leave home and take up diving. If true it could revolutionize the dive industry.

With regard to tubes, I had them when I was a kid and never had any serious issues clearing.

 

[stairman]

Try to equalize several times through out the day.If you dont have any problems you should be ok diving.

 

[doctormike]

I had tubes in my ears as a child, I have heard this could affect clearing your ears because of scarring. My parents said that the tubes came and went normaly and I only needed one round of them. I have no problems clearing on airplanes before but I was curious if it was same as diving.

Thanks

As someone whose entire life seems to revolve around putting in tubes, you might expect that I would downplay this "scarring" issue just because ear tubes paid for my dry suit! However, I assure you, that I am speaking from the heart here, and want nothing but the best for my fellow divers....

Ear tubes are placed to temporarily compensate for an immature Eustachian tube, which is extremely common in childhood. Most children outgrow this problem by age 5 or so, and while some children may require multiple sets of tubes, the vast majority of them improve with age, and the eardrum heals uneventfully.

Eardrum scarring is a commonly misunderstood phenomenon. The real complication of tubes is persistent perforation, where the tube hole fails to close. This is very uncommon, but a hole in the eardrum would certainly be something that would cause a problem with diving.

However, what most people mean by scarring is that it is sometimes possible to see where the tube was placed previously. In most cases, this is simply a cosmetic issue, and does not cause any functional problems.

Another condition which is often confused with ear tube related scarring is tympanosclerosis, where plaques of calcium deposit in the eardrum. While it is not clear exactly what causes this, it seems to be related more to the eardrum blood supply, and can happen without any history of tubes. Conversely, children who have had many sets of tubes often do not have this at all. In any case, this is another cosmetic issue for the most part, since it does not seem to cause any hearing loss or be a sign of Eustachian tube problems.

So the bottom line is if a diver's eardrums have healed closed from the tubes that were placed as a child (almost always the case) and if the diver can equalize easily (again, virtually all childhood Eustachian tube dysfunction resolves by the teenage years), a history of ear tubes is not a reason to avoid diving...

 

[tun o fundra]

Thanks for all the replies. I've tried clearing using the valsava manuever and only the left will "pop", is this normal and the right ear will eventualy equilize?

 

[doctormike]

Thanks for all the replies. I've tried clearing using the valsava manuever and only the left will "pop", is this normal and the right ear will eventualy equilize?

You can't count on that, especially in a diving situation. The only way to know for sure is to try it in a relatively safe situation, like a swimming pool. Go a few feet underwater and try it there, if that works, try going deeper before you even start with SCUBA diving...