Ears

[Don]

I had a customer come in this morning to ask about classes. He mentioned, he had ruptured his ear drum four different times. All to non diving accidents. His question was, would it make a difference? I suggested he sees a diving ears, noise and throat diving doctor. Since diving doctors know what to expect, they would be the best source compared to a regular doctor. I gave him a name of a doctor I see. If you are looking at taking a scuba class and have this problem, this would give you a step up.

[John_B]

I'll spare everyone the gory details, but I've had more than my share of middle ear issues throughout childhood and into adulthood.

IANAD, but the best advice I have to offer would be to realize that everyone is different and everyone's ear issues are different. I'm diving proof that chronic ear infections, multiple tympanostomy procedures, and ruptured eardrums in the past don't automatically mean that you can't dive. Even with my ears, its not what they've been through in the past but whether or not I'm congested today that matters for me. It really comes down to whether you can "clear your ears" (e.g. equalize the pressure) which will be covered in your Open Water class in the pool sessions.

There is an outstanding online presentation by a respected diving doctor out of the University of Washington in Seattle that explains in layman's terms how ear clearing works and teaches ways that you can do this that is gentle to your ears. Highly recommended: http://faculty.washington.edu/ekay/ It runs about an hour and is worth the investment in your time. The intro graphics are a little kitschy but the presentation itself is all business. (Note: Mac users can download the higher resolution AVI version to their hard drives and watch it using QuickTime by downloading and installing the free VLC plugin from the good people at VideoLAN. The presentation itself is about 650 MB to download.)

The last piece of advice I'd have is that there seem to be a LOT of doctors in this part of the country with zero exposure or real world experience to diving or hyperbaric medicine, even ENTs. I agree with Don that you shouldn't take your diving ears or sinuses to any old doctor who may not care about or take the time to really understand diving. My GP and my ENT both are fairly active warm-water divers, where other doctors that have looked at my ears just shrugged and said diving is contraindicated (i.e. "don't do that"). If I had listened to the first doctor I talked to five years ago, I probably wouldn't be a diver today. I can't even imagine that now! (At my current pace, I should get somewhere around 100 dives in this year alone.)

Best of luck!

John_B