Ear pressure/pain question

[snulma1]

Hello fellow divers. I have a question to see if any of you have had a similar problem and if so how you dealt with it.

I have been diving for many years now, in the past 2-3 years I have noticed I have a problem with ear pain but not during descent, during ASCENT!

Its very weird, and it occurs no matter how deep I go. If I am just snorkeling and I go down 5-10 feet, and come up at a normal rate (like I've done thousands of time) my ears kill till I surface.

I looked it up and it seems its something called a reverse block, air gets trapped in the eustachian tubes during ascent. They say to prevent it you should slow your ascent.

Thats great if I have a tank on, but if I'm snorkeling, or just free diving, then what???

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[snorvich]

I have somewhere in the vicinity of 3000 dives at this point. I have had a reverse block several times (maybe 10). Best relief technique was to go down slightly and slowly come up with that ear pointing slightly towards the surface. However I do not know how I would handle it snorkeling since I never "go down" snorkeling. I know some people have had the issue when slightly congested.

 

[snulma1]

yeah, It even happens if I'm swimming for exercise and go underwater less than 5 feet. I feel like I have something clogging my tubes, but it shouldn't be everytime...

 

[BigReefer93]

I've never had this issue but as gross as it may be depending on how you clean your ears there may be a lot of serum that could be causing some blocking as well. Could always try going to a clinic and having your ears flushed and wax removed. I've seen this done many times and it's disgusting how much crap can be stuck up in there! And you could also try a Netti pot which will help with your eustachian tubes as well. Hope that may help a little.

 

[snulma1]

I'm pretty OCD about cleaning my ears after showering. I usually Qtip each ear. But I guess it is possible that I have impacted cerumen on that side. It also would explain why its hard for me to hear my wife....

I'll see if one of my colleagues can look in my ears