LI Diver
Contributor
Commercial hardhat diving set up may be a solution for you but ck w/doc first.
Will I ever be able to dive?
- Thread starter KentuckyLBZ
- Start date
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Some of our commercial divers will reply but I believe that the hardhat requires a drysuit. Also, commercial is often done off air supplied from above. You might check with DCBC who is on this board or one of the other commercial board members.
OP
KentuckyLBZ
New
I emailed DAN (Diver Alert Network) and they told me that the commercial divers must train to flood and clear the helmets. Did you have to do that on your trip, Steve? I guess I can see how you would need to be able to do that in the event of an emergency. Not sure if that will be an option... I'd need my plug in for that, but would that interfere with equalizing while in the helmet? Or does pressure stay relatively constant in the suit?
Sorry for all the questions.
Sorry for all the questions.
There isn't anything you can do, short of hard hat diving, that will guarantee you that no water gets into your ear. In addition, one must consider that one of the risks of diving is ear injury, and with only one functioning ear, if you damage that one, you will have no hearing.
I will ping our resident ENT expert, Dr. Mike, and ask him to weigh in here. But I think the risks may not be manageable.
I will ping our resident ENT expert, Dr. Mike, and ask him to weigh in here. But I think the risks may not be manageable.
Nirvana
Contributor
About the commercial diving helmets, I don't think there is any chance of using one for scuba diving. I think the volume of air inside one is too large to be adequately ventilated by a scuba regulator, and would drain a cylinder very fast if a suitable regulator was used. I don't think there are rebreathers made to deal with that kind of gas flow either.
Of course, if one of the board members with actual commercial diving experience would chime in, they could provide a more complete (and reliable) answer.
Of course, if one of the board members with actual commercial diving experience would chime in, they could provide a more complete (and reliable) answer.
AlKu
New
One choice could be diving a drysuit with a dryhood. For example a Loitokari drysuit from finland. http://www.sukelluspukuloitokari.fi/ (sorry about the site being only in Finnish...)
Evan,
Like Nirvana said above, a commercial diving helmet on a scuba tank burns air quickly but may be an option for you if you want to limit your bottom time and carry a big bottle or a set of doubles. They do require some training to use properly and are pretty pricey, though. You may be able to find a scuba instructor who is familiar enough with the helmets to custom-tailor a diving class for you, but I don't think it's worth putting yourself through commercial diving school to learn. As for the ditch-and-don drills, that's an emergency procedure that commercial diving students learn but for what it's worth, Navy divers are not trained to do that in a Superlite (or weren't when I went through school).
This isn't an endorsement, but an alternative might be the Pro-Ear mask mentioned earlier. A good friend of mine uses one and has been very happy with it. He dives frequently and his eardrums are permanently perforated from numerous barotraumas. Maybe one of the recreational instructors here can speak to you how would accomplish the mask clearing drills that are required during scuba training.
Best regards,
DDM
Like Nirvana said above, a commercial diving helmet on a scuba tank burns air quickly but may be an option for you if you want to limit your bottom time and carry a big bottle or a set of doubles. They do require some training to use properly and are pretty pricey, though. You may be able to find a scuba instructor who is familiar enough with the helmets to custom-tailor a diving class for you, but I don't think it's worth putting yourself through commercial diving school to learn. As for the ditch-and-don drills, that's an emergency procedure that commercial diving students learn but for what it's worth, Navy divers are not trained to do that in a Superlite (or weren't when I went through school).
This isn't an endorsement, but an alternative might be the Pro-Ear mask mentioned earlier. A good friend of mine uses one and has been very happy with it. He dives frequently and his eardrums are permanently perforated from numerous barotraumas. Maybe one of the recreational instructors here can speak to you how would accomplish the mask clearing drills that are required during scuba training.
Best regards,
DDM
OK, I'm really not supposed to give advice without seeing the patient, but I'm going to make some general comments. Please take this in the spirit in which it was intended, that I am not making a specific recommendation for the OP, whose ear status I do not know. If you need some drawings to follow along with the anatomy talk, look at this page.
1) After a radical mastoidectomy, the middle ear space is obliterated, leaving a large "bowl", which is physiologically similar to a normal ear canal. Since there is no air-filled middle ear space, the usual issues of equalization do not apply. However, there are all sorts of variants of mastoidectomy, and in some cases there is still air behind the residual or reconstructed eardrum.
2) It's generally a good idea to keep a mastoid cavity dry, but there are certainly people who swim, shower or otherwise get the cavity wet. Whether this would cause a minor annoyance or a major case of otitis externa (swimmer's ear) depends on the patient's particular anatomy, so if the OP hasn't seen an otologist in a while, that might be a good question to ask. Also ask if there are ways of drying the ear canal after water gets if there is an earplug failure. Depending on the OPs anatomy, it might not be the end of the world and otits externa might be preventable after exposure by using things like ear dryers (little hair dryers for the ear), certain drops, etc...
3) Diving with a tight fitting earplug will create an unventilated space and set the diver up for a squeeze. Ventilated earplugs exist, and some divers wear them, but it would be unlikely that you could get one for a post-mastoid bowl type ear canal.
4) Fixing this problem with commercial dive gear, especially modding a surface supplied rig to work with double tanks involving an incredible amount of task loading and potential failure points. This does NOT sound like a reasonable solution for a brand new OW diver. I'm being polite. The dryhood or the pro-ear thing might be better choices than that (again, haven't used them myself).
5) I don't know much about full face masks, but I don't think that they cover the ears.
6) If you want to PM me with your location, I may be able to refer you to an otologist (ear specialist) in your area, if you haven't seen one in a while. Sometimes, it is worthwhile to do a surgical revision of a mastoid bowl if there have been a lot of problems with granulation tissue, bleeding, infection, etc... There is also an operation to obliterate part of this space which makes it easier to keep clean.
Hope this helps!
Mike
1) After a radical mastoidectomy, the middle ear space is obliterated, leaving a large "bowl", which is physiologically similar to a normal ear canal. Since there is no air-filled middle ear space, the usual issues of equalization do not apply. However, there are all sorts of variants of mastoidectomy, and in some cases there is still air behind the residual or reconstructed eardrum.
2) It's generally a good idea to keep a mastoid cavity dry, but there are certainly people who swim, shower or otherwise get the cavity wet. Whether this would cause a minor annoyance or a major case of otitis externa (swimmer's ear) depends on the patient's particular anatomy, so if the OP hasn't seen an otologist in a while, that might be a good question to ask. Also ask if there are ways of drying the ear canal after water gets if there is an earplug failure. Depending on the OPs anatomy, it might not be the end of the world and otits externa might be preventable after exposure by using things like ear dryers (little hair dryers for the ear), certain drops, etc...
3) Diving with a tight fitting earplug will create an unventilated space and set the diver up for a squeeze. Ventilated earplugs exist, and some divers wear them, but it would be unlikely that you could get one for a post-mastoid bowl type ear canal.
4) Fixing this problem with commercial dive gear, especially modding a surface supplied rig to work with double tanks involving an incredible amount of task loading and potential failure points. This does NOT sound like a reasonable solution for a brand new OW diver. I'm being polite. The dryhood or the pro-ear thing might be better choices than that (again, haven't used them myself).
5) I don't know much about full face masks, but I don't think that they cover the ears.
6) If you want to PM me with your location, I may be able to refer you to an otologist (ear specialist) in your area, if you haven't seen one in a while. Sometimes, it is worthwhile to do a surgical revision of a mastoid bowl if there have been a lot of problems with granulation tissue, bleeding, infection, etc... There is also an operation to obliterate part of this space which makes it easier to keep clean.
Hope this helps!
Mike
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