Ear trouble.

[clay357]

My wife and I did our OW certification last weekend. We are both having trouble with our ears adjusting. I understand that this will take some time to correct and will get better with experience. My question is: Is it safe to go on another dive before our ears totally clear from the last dive?

 

[Hemlon]

The biggest tip I can give is to descend slowly. VERY slowly.

And equalize your ears before you feel the need to do so.

If you are congested, work on getting the nasal/sinus congestion relieved before the dive.

If this doesn't work, seek the advice of a ENT (ear-nose-throat) doctor.

It usually gets better with time and experience!

 

[jhayes75]

If your ears still feel clogged they are probably infected. Put of couple of drops of this solution in each ear for a couple of minutes. 50/50 isopropyl alcohol and White Vinegar, then drain. The Vinegar will kill the bacteria and the alcohol will dry out the moisture. I keep this in my dive bag and apply after each dive. I haven't had an ear infection since.

 

[Kenny13]

If your ears still feel clogged they are probably infected. Put of couple of drops of this solution in each ear for a couple of minutes. 50/50 isopropyl alcohol and White Vinegar, then drain. The Vinegar will kill the bacteria and the alcohol will dry out the moisture. I keep this in my dive bag and apply after each dive. I haven't had an ear infection since.

On a similar note, I keep a bottle of Swim Ear in my bag and put a few drops in each ear after every dive and haven't had any problems since I started doing that.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Some divers, including myself have small ear canals and are prone to swimmers ear infections. If water is retained, your body heat combined with the junk in the water can be an ideal incubator for infections. The alcohol will stop this and dry out your ear fast, but also strip the protective wax as a side effect. I add a small amount of glycerin to address this. Works for me

 

[Bubbletrubble]

My question is: Is it safe to go on another dive before our ears totally clear from the last dive?

@clay357: If you can't equalize your ears, then you shouldn't be diving.
If your ears are still stuffed up, to be on the safe side, I'd recommend that you refrain from diving until things go back to normal.

Diagnosis of ear issues in divers is not always so straightforward. It's common for novice divers who don't equalize properly or descend too rapidly to experience middle ear barotrauma (MEB). Stuffiness or muffled hearing can persist for several days due to this ear injury. This is a completely different condition from an outer ear infection. An ear exam conducted by a competent physician should be able to distinguish MEB from an outer ear infection.

From what I've seen, the majority of scuba instructors will only teach one or two ear equalization techniques. They most commonly teach their students the pinch-the-nose Valsalva maneuver. Educate yourself. Check out Dr. Kay's "Ear Fear" lecture (link is in my sig) to learn more about ear anatomy and equalization. You really need to try out all the different equalization techniques in order to figure out which one works the best for you. The one that works best for me is the Roydhouse maneuver.

Dive safely out there...

 

[cocoajoe]

Yep, sounds like barotrauma to me. You should have let your instructor know (point at ears) stopped descent and ascend to shallower depth to try and equalize. If you can't equalize, thumb dive.

Bubble is right, you shouldn't dive for a while...but I suggest 2 weeks

 

[SlowAndEasy]

I agree with Bubbletrubble and cocoajoe, based upon my own experience. Only a trained physician can tell you whether you have an ear infection or a barotrauma to the ears.

I had trouble with my ears following my CESA drill during my OW certification. I thought it was just water in my ears and did two more dives the following day. Day after that, my ears still hadn't cleared. I thought it was swimmer's ear (an infection).

I went to a clinic that just happened to be staffed by an ex-Navy physician. He diagnosed me as having a grade 2 barotrauma and advised me to stay out of the water until my ears healed. It took about three months for my ears to get back to normal.

I strongly recommend getting checked out by a doctor, explaining that you were just diving.

Regards,
Steven

 

[judypots]

My husband and I have been diving for about 3 years and have about 100 dives each. While neither of us has ever had any significant trouble clearing our ears, we always have clogged ears during each dive trip and for several weeks thereafter. In fact, my ears are finally clearing completely after returning on March 27 from a Saba trip. The clogging has never so far affected being able to clear while diving. On our first trip,a diver we met who was extremely experienced mentioned that he just accepted the fact that he has clogged ears for the duration of every dive trip and for several weeks thereafter. I take a prescription anti-hisamine, and that has never seemed to make any difference.

We never thought to check with a doctor. I guess I will now, just to be sure, but it doesn't seem to be an infection, and it eventually resolves itself, at least so far.

Regards,
Judy

 

[TSandM]

The first thing to check is whether you can clear -- if you do the nose-pinch Valsalva thing, can you feel air going into both ears? If so, it is probably okay for you to dive, but what you want to avoid is the problem that caused the full feeling in the first place.

What happens when you equalize too late, is that tissue fluid exudes into the middle ear space. This can be cumulative over days, as Judy describes. If the acute injury is severe, you can actually get bleeding into the middle ear space, and in the drum. This can look very much like infection to a physician who is not familiar with barotrauma.

If barotrauma is bad enough, it will make it difficult or impossible to get air through the Eustachian tube in order to equalize pressure. If you find that, on your next attempt to dive, you are really having to honk to equalize, you need to abort and give your ears some time.

People are frequently (really, almost universally) confused about barotrauma, middle ear infection, and outer ear infection. They have different symptoms and different treatments (and different prevention). HERE is a small essay I wrote about it, in an effort to make things a bit clearer.