Last Updated: February 24, 2023
As diving can be a big thrill, it may also bring in a lot of issues. If you are a regular scuba diver or diving enthusiast, you must have noticed the various sensitive areas of your body. Apart from your eyes, ears are considered to be the most sensitive organs for any diver.
If you are a deep water diver, water in your ears can be a major concern. As it could be painful and excruciating, preventing water from entering your ears is important. Moreover, this could also spoil your entire experience. Therefore, solid prevention is a must.
Prevention
1. Hood
One of the best ways through which you can stop water from entering your sensitive ears is by wearing a hood. There are special hoods available in the market today that properly cover your head and ears. They make sure to not let any water into your ears.
However, the material that your diving hood is made of can make a great difference. Therefore, you should make careful decisions while judging your hood’s future performance.
2. Avoid Diving When Suffering From Cold or Flu
In case you are suffering from flu, cold, or any sort of congestion, you should never go scuba diving. Many divers do not take this warning seriously and suffer consequences. When you are coughing, sneezing and suffering from nasal congestion, you cannot equalize properly and it might be very risky.
Most equalizing techniques, such as the Toynbee maneuver, involve the use of nose. Generally, you have to look up while pinching your nose. While you pinch it, you also have to blow out your nose. This will force the pressure to move towards your ear tubes and thus release all the pressure created.
Equalizing is a very important step when diving for more than 15 feet depth. This will protect your ears from suffering a perforated eardrum and any more pain or further harm.
Therefore, in case of a cold, the blocked nose is not able to pass the pressure towards the ears. And thus, no pressure is released from them.
3. Avoid Quick Ascending and Descending
Although this is not a very common problem, ascending or descending too fast can put a lot of pressure on your ears. This will start to cause pain and make your dive uncomfortable.
If you have enough air supply with you, always try to maintain a slow descend whenever possible. This soothes the pain and may also leave room for the pressure from your blocked ears to be released.
4. Avoid Alcohol
This could be one of the biggest mistakes that divers can make. Consuming alcohol when diving brings in a lot of trouble. When you are going deep sea diving, you need to have all your senses in check and under control.
But with alcohol, your senses stop responding, and the additional pressure underwater makes things worse. The case stands even worse for your ears as they find it very difficult to adjust.
Do Earplugs Help When Scuba Diving?
Some may consider earplugs as a good option to avoid pain underwater. However, instead of making the situation better, they actually make it worse. They leave a cavity between the ear canal and water. Due to this, the ears don’t get to adjust to the actual pressure outside.
This causes a lot of pain and due to increased pressure, removing the plugs becomes very hard.
Related: Can You Wear Earplugs When Snorkeling?
Final Word
Protecting your ears while diving should be one of your major concerns. As there are many preventive methods, diving can become an easy and enjoyable activity. However, make sure to always listen to your body when diving deep. Any signs of trouble should be quickly catered to.
My unbounded love for the oceans and everything it has to offer motivated me to pursue my passion and become a professional scuba diving instructor.
I keep reading, exploring, and learning more about scuba diving and the underwater world all the time, so I’m excited to share my knowledge with fellow scuba enthusiasts and hopefully contribute a little to your development as a diver. I want people to fall in love with the oceans with as much passion as I have. Read more about me here.