“My ears hurt” or “I can’t equalise”
Mr A Student-Diver
These are two of the most common problems new divers approach us here at Dive Station Pattaya. So to help you out I’ve put together this post on how to equalise your ears to help you guys out. Firstly, my ears hurt as well when I first started diving and sometimes they still do; so you are not alone. However, there are things that you can do to help and to ease the pain.
Remember: Equalise Early and often
As you will have heard before about scuba, practice makes perfect, or better. So don’t think that after a couple of goes in the pool or even at open water that just because your ears hurt you have to give up diving, its just that have just haven’t found the perfect method for you…
Methods to equalise your ears
On your open water course, you were taught to equalise your ears using the Valsalva manoeuvre. This is an exhalation against a closed airway. Close your mouth, pinch your nose closed and blow out. You should be able to “pop” both ears. A dive mask has a flexible nose cover to allow you to pinch your nose whilst diving. This is the most common method of equalising your ears. To make it a little more effective, look up whilst completing them this extends and opens your Eustachian tubes. These are the tubes that link the upper throat to the middle ear and it these little sucker gett blocked with mucus that causes your pain.
Be careful not to squeeze too hard when equalising, this can cause harm to your ears and will actually cause the Eustachian tubes to close. Little and often is key and if you feel any discomfort, ascend slightly to reduce the squeeze and try again, at the beginning of your diving career try use a decent line as much as possible this will help slow your descent if your eyes are hurting.
You could also try chewing gum before diving, you’ll find a lot of divers doing this. Some divers find Chewing gum helps, this mimics the Valsalva manoeuvre and can help you keep your ears clear. I tend to always have a packet of Fisherman friends sweet on the boat, the eucalyptus help keep always open. When I’m working on the boat I can go through a packet in a few days
Also always perform a Valsalva manoeuvre immediately before your decent – it really helps.
You can also trying Yawning and/or swallowing these actions combined the with valsalva generally work.
If these don’t work for you, the Toynbee manoeuvre ( I had to look that up). This is pinching your nose whilst you swallow. This movement pulls your Eustachian tubes down extending them to release pressure, while your tongue compresses the air in the tubes. Clever huh? You can try to blow and swallow at the same time whilst holding your nose, combining both Valsalva and Toynbee methods.
If you still find that you are having difficulties, there is also the Edmonds Technique, which is according to Wikipedia “While tensing the soft palate (the soft tissue at the back of the roof of the mouth) and throat muscles and pushing the jaw forward and down, do a Valsalva manoeuvre.” basically a backwards yawn while doing a normal Valsalva – hopefully, it won’t come to that at the earlier methods will have helped.
As well as these mechanical methods you want to keep in mind that thick mucus is harder to clear, so keep you self hydrated this keep you mucus more fluid, certain foods such as milk and other dairy products thicken mucus try to avoid them. Also, Alcohol and smoking irritates the mucus membranes avoid these or keeping it to a bare minimum will help
As you can see there are lots of different methods to keep you diving. If you can query about ears or any aspect of diving we are always here Dive Station Pattaya give advice also don’t forget what we said earlier in this post, practice makes perfect so book on to a days fun diving today.
