Earplugs

[johnnya1966]

I have been diving for about 3 months now. Have my advanced, wreck and deep certification. I started out getting lots of water in my ears and even an infection one one occasion. I turned to using specialized earplugs, which works fine.

Has anyone used them and managed to "ween" themselves off of the earplugs. I get no water in my ears anymore. I used to get a little bit even with the earplugs. I have logged 40 dives now and nothing in my ears anymore.

I am hesitant to not use them as I don't want to take a chance at getting more ear infections. But am tired of having to stick them in my ears for every dive.

 

[TMHeimer]

Interesting. I found that the hood does the same job as the plugs of keeping water from going deep into the ears (some may get in). I only use the plugs in the pool. After each dive, plugs or hood, I use ear drops which clear out all water promptly (within half hour). No more infections and rarely any itching. You may want to try going plugless then using ear drops?

 

[Searcaigh]

+1 for using post dive treatment to prevent swimmers ear, you will see this thread develop into several recipes for home made concoctions of mixes using alcohol and vinegar (mine is a 2:1 mix and 5 mins in each ear).

I also use pre-dive treatment with Earol many UK dive shops sell it, and to have triple insurance I also use a mask with ear covers. Hey if I could get these ear plugs where I live I would be using them too as I have had a few dive trips cut short due to ear infections, twice in Malaysia and twice in Philippines.

 

[Damselfish]

I use the plugs because they help me equalize. If you're more concerned with ear infections you might try consistent use of a swimmers ear solution. (Although you might not want to mess with success...)

 

[richboslice]

Like Searcaigh says. Use the treatment. Make sure you keep it in 5 minutes minimum. That is the key. Research was done in the Navy about this and the time was a determining factor

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