Ear issues

[Pegger]

Hi there folks,

I damaged my ear free diving this summer and I'm still experiencing " crunchy" ear, I was told by another diver. He said that I stretched the membrane and fluid was trapped between the outer and inner ear.
Now when I equilize out of water, I can hear a crunchy sound. My doctor says it, (ear drum) looks normal and nothing to worry about. Any thoughts??

Regards

 

[lazyturtle]

You're ear is still bothering you after this summer? That's a long time. I've expereinced what you're talked about for a day, maybe two. I don't know if the 'stretching' theory is correct, and the doc might not be looking at the problem the way it needs to be looked at (maybe the problem isn't your ear drum). Try contacting DAN (dan.org) by phone and discussing it with thier medical advisory line. At the very least you should get a second opinion from a different doc.
Good luck with that.

 

[marku]

Had that in my dive today. Water from inside your mask goes up you nasal cavity, through your eustachian tube, and into your inner ear. I think. More chances of this happening ifyou spend a lot of time in a head-down position, like when you descend while free-diving. The pain & crunchy sound were gone by the end of my dive (I was SCUBA diving); Ithink the fluids drained back down my eustachian tube again. Maybe my eustachian tubes are bigger'n yours!

 

[liberato]

Water from inside your mask goes up you nasal cavity, through your eustachian tube, and into your inner ear. I think.

Fluid in the middle ear mainly is pulled from the surrounding tissues due to ineffective equalization technique during descent. It would be very difficult to snort water into your middle ear. And the Eustachian tube is not connected to the inner ear so that would not be involved but you probably meant middle ear anyway. The original poster's physician would have been able to determine if he had fluid and/or infection and he did not seem to mention that.

The damage caused by barotrauma can last for a long time and sometime never resolve. If all that you are experiencing is the Eustachian tube crackling then you should be fine. If you experince any tinnitus (ringing), vertigo, or discernable hearing loss you need to get it checked. It is impossible to dive without suffering some barotraumatic effects. Most of us live with the minor effects as a trade-off for the privileged peek under the surface.

 

[marku]

Fluid in the middle ear mainly is pulled from the surrounding tissues due to ineffective equalization technique during descent. It would be very difficult to snort water into your middle ear. And the Eustachian tube is not connected to the inner ear so that would not be involved but you probably meant middle ear anyway.

Thanks for setting me straight Liberato, appreciate it. The water really does come from inside my mask though because I could feel it going through my nasal cavity and thru the eustachian tube. Usally happens when i descend head down. Does the eustachian tube dilate when you equalize? Maybe the water flows thru the tube easier when it dilates during equalization.

 

[liberato]

Yes, it sounds like you are able to do that. I did not think about being inverted. I'll bet with tubes that dilated you probably have no problem equalizing! But seawater in the middle ear probably is not a good thing. A nice incubator we have there...