Has Reverse Squeeze ever happened to you?

[ScubaMarc]

About 2 weeks ago I had either a reverse tooth or sinus squeeze. I had severe pain above the left side of my gum line, Right above the gum line. 3 of my symptoms say it is sinus, 1. Some pain under my eye, 2. when I bend over the pressure increases and 3. when I touch my check the pain increase. The only symptom of tooth squeeze is that my bottom left from teeth hurt a little, very minor pain (This could be my TMJ issue which I had for many years.). I called dan the day it happened and they said it was definitely sinus and I should take Sudafed, afrin, and tyanol. I did this for 5 days. Pain got better, but still very much there. I called dan again and they said I probably have an infection and should see a doctor.

I went to the doctor and he felt the tenderness under my eyeball which he said it is definitely sinus. He place me on penicillin (do not know the proper name), and allegra d.

Now it is 2 weeks. I only have pain for a few minutes each day. But it is still there. I have 8 more days on the meds.

Question: How long has it taken others to fully heal?

 

[av8er23]

Had it one time during the first year I was teaching. Lots of ups and downs that year and i'd had mild vertigo for a second or two in a dive the day before. It was time to came up so I came up, lotsa pain no matter how slow I ascended. Turns out I had a fungal infection that caused the main trouble... two minutes of the ENT sucking garbage out of my ear made a great difference in how I felt but I was still out of the water for about a month with a regimen of antibiotics, steriods and antifungals.

If it ever happens again I'll have to try the sucking with a plugged nose a couple posters mentioned.

About suking garbage out of you ears. Have you ever had your ears candled? This usually is offered at most day spas. My mom bought some of the candles at the spa after she had it done. You stick acandles in your ear that is shaped like a very skinny long ice cream cone. As it burns it creates a suction and pulls stuff out of your ear. Man it is amazing how much gunk comes out.

 

[hotchickmagnet]

Reverse squeezes are dangerous and can cause extreme cases of vertigo at depth. While they can be naturally occuring, they are usually due to the overusage of Sudafed and other decongestants that wear off during a dive. I highly recommend not using these types of drugs while diving.

I decided to ask this question due to my concerns in another thread.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=112307&page=1&pp=10

Has anyone ever been effected by reverse squeeze? I know most everybody has probably felt a squeeze before during acent but has anyone actually damaged their ears due to this topic?

 

[TheRedHead]

Just returned from Cozumel where I had a most unpleasant reverse ear block. I was diving with Aldora and we were at Punta Sur where there is a small school of black tip reef sharks in residence. We descended over sand to about 100 feet and I was the last one down having a little trouble clearing, but did clear both ears. We swam to the reef and I noted we were at 115 feet when we saw the sharks. The current was pretty strong and I was having to drop down low and finger walk to keep from being blown into the coral while we were winding our way up through the reef.

At about 90 feet my ear made this loud high pitched noise and I had instant vertigo. I think I drifted up about 20 feet and my buddy came up and pulled me back down. I suppose I was floundering around and was beginning to overbreathe my regulator and was breathing very shallow while the reef was slowing spinning in circles. I had to close my eyes and concentrate on getting my breathing under control.

It was a bad situation and I was beginning to get pretty task loaded. I was trying to get my pocket unzipped to get my slate and finally grabbed my buddy's slate and managed to write "ear". Gustavo (our DM) stayed on one side and my buddy on the other and somehow we slowly ascended and my vertigo subsided and I was able to get my breathing under control. By the time we got the our safety stop, I felt almost normal. We went to Playa Mia for our SI and Memo (Aldora's manager) came by and made me go to Dr. Piccolo's office. Piccolo said my left eustachian tube was congested from either an infection or allergy, precribed ear drops and psudeofed and made me take the next 2 days off diving. He lectured me on the horrible things that could have happened to my ear, showed me slides of a blown eardrum and insisted that never dive again with congestion.

I did not feel congested in the least in my sinuses and had no signs of a cold. Dr. Piccolo had a hard time believing this, but it was true nontheless. When I was able to dive again, Aldora sent a private DM and boat for me and my buddy and we had an incredible dive at Columbia where we did all the swim throughs and maxed out our NDL (82 minutes, max depth 97 feet). I think it was the best dive I've ever had (thanks Aldora!).

Maybe I should have called the dive and the thought ran through my mind. I was really hesitant to surface because I looked up and saw a lot of boat traffic and thought I would be safer under water at that point than risk being run over by a dive boat. I'm not sure what the lesson here is except perhaps get the training before doing the deep dives in Cozumel. I had my AOW and Deep Diver speciality and the I didn't panic and remembered my training during the most stressful period of the dive.

 

[mstudley]

About suking garbage out of you ears. Have you ever had your ears candled? This usually is offered at most day spas. My mom bought some of the candles at the spa after she had it done. You stick acandles in your ear that is shaped like a very skinny long ice cream cone. As it burns it creates a suction and pulls stuff out of your ear. Man it is amazing how much gunk comes out.

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/candling.html