Post-dive ears

Dear Sven and others, do not misunderstand me about the ear candles. For me it felt very good to use them and it looked as if they "pulled" out some of my excess ear vax. I have talked to one of my friends who uses them because he like the feeling. Something that makes you feel better is probably good for your health.

My "problem" is that I can not understand how it works. No way it can build a negative pressure strong enough to pull something out in the ear. It will immediately be equalized since the candle itself is quite wide. What it could do is to heat air in the candle that would rise. This would then create a small negative pressure in the ear that would be equalized and then pull in some warm air in to the ear. This heating and drying is probably good for your ear. I do not believe that the heat would be strong enough to heat the wax to gas and rise up through the candle to cool down and stay in the candle.

What I mean is that if they are really good and/or at least have some benefits. There should be at least one or a few medical doctors that believe in them and have tested them in clinical tests.

Please let me know if you find some interesting articles.

Hi
when i asked my doctor about ears he said not to mess with anything in my ears...
he just advised me to put a vinegar solution in it after each dive to prevent any infection...
He said not to use any alcohol since it suposed to dry out your ear to much (i gues a mineral oil should prevent that).

Jure

Hmmm, thanks for explaining the ear candles. I've never heard of them. Sounds like it's supposed to work simmilarly to the old "boil a coke bottle" to remove a boil. Suppsoedly, if you boil a coke bottle to heat it up and then place the oppening over a boil, the bottle, while cooling, creats a vacuum and pulls the boil out. Yuck, huh? I've never tried it.

One thing I do know is general practicioners know almost nothing about specialized ear conditions. Go to an ear specialist. I know when I went to a general practitioner for a simple ear infection I began to tell him about my already know condition of exotosis. He began to raise his ear viewer thingy while saying "OhHoHoho, well young man (I was probably as old or older than he was) sometimes it may feel like we have bones in our ear (he looks in) howevvv...ahhh..hmmm..weelll...ahh -- whatever it is you have in your ears lets If I can clean them with my ear syringe."

Rax's question

Can exotosis develop also from cold air?

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It's a major contributer. This is why its hits people who surf so severly. The head is dunked under cold water repeatedly and then is exposed to cold air and wind blowing accross the ears while sitting waiting for waves.

It can be remedied. The old procedure was to slice across the back of the ear, flap the ear forward towards your face, and drill the bone out. The ear is then placed back and stitched shut. If exposure to cold water and wind continue after the procedure, the bones grow right back. The new procedure is done with lasers and with your ear in place (I think).

I used to try to soften up what's inside my ears like icarus is saying and then try to draw out the contents by using the ear syringe provided in the ear cleaing kits by compressing the syinge first, placing it in my ear and releasing. This sometimes causes the junk to drawn out like a slurp gun. I suppose if you had a strong enough suction you could busrt your ear drum. Best not to try this!

But the bottom line is the more objects you stick in your ear, syinges, candles, q-tips etc, the more the ear gets irritatted and then swells up from the inside. Once this happens, your ears definately won't clear and you have to wait for the swelling to go down before trying to work on it again. After the inside gets irritated and swells up then everything will make it worse including alchohol and peroxide.

Vinegar is great, but once again, my general practicioner tried to tell me that he thought I was getting an infection from the vinegar. He was totally wrong of course, which is why I say, "see a specialist."

Just dont let him talk you into flapping your ears back and drilling your ears open!

The procedure mentioned is called an exostectomy and is now done with the outer ear (pinna) left intact.
Yes, surfers and divers get exostoses.
The main reason people decide to have the bony overgrowth removed is that given time, you become deaf.
There are probably many other factors and complications associated w/ the condition. This will vary w/each individual situation.
I agree w/DiverD: see a specialist who is very experienced w/ this condition.
Check www.scuba-doc.com
Recovery from an exostectomy will require spending a fair amount of time out of the water whilst the ear heals.

The main reason people decide to have the bony overgrowth removed is that given time, you become deaf.

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I was told that the main concern is if there is foreing matter behind the bony growth. If there is no substance behind the growth then life should continue as normal. Foriegn matter behind the growthe could result in serious complications and deafness. I had an MRI and behind my ears were deamed clear. The only deafness I should expect is what I already have -- not too much -- your old surfing buddies may talk a little too loud -- but it will get worse if you don't stop the source inrritation, meaning; I pretty much quit surfing in the winter. (caught so many waves; its okay.) Another solution -- whear a hood while surfing. Which is what I do when diving. ;-)

Recovery from an exostectomy will require spending a fair amount of time out of the water whilst the ear heals.

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Whoops. One more thing. I was told by (what I would call) a very astute girl at the hospital: do not have the procedure done unless there is foriegn matter behind the ear. You don't have any, you don't need this. It will only grow back. So I got the hell out of dodge! Whewww!!! (That was in the flap your ears back days.)

edit: do(d)ge.

This doesn't relate to the extosis stream of thought but back on the post-dive ears. I just returned from diving Maui for a week. I went deaf in my right ear for a few days due to water. More like everything just sounded like deep bass. An effective way to filter out girls with high pitched voices I found out. Anyways, I got some diver ear alcohol stuff and evaporated the fluid. Then the same thing happened to my left ear but not as bad.

Just got back from the trip and figured I would go check it out at the doctor just incase. My left ear was fine but my right ear had some wax blockage. He syringed it with this spray hose in my ear for a few minutes. I was feeling a little vertigo and almost fell out of my chair. Couldn't walk after for a few minutes. Then he stuck an oversized toothpick in my ear and dug out this huge looking black/dark brown glob of waxy goo. It was weird. It feels better a little inflamed and now I require anibotics for a week. Strange what builds up over a long time in your ears.

The moral of this story being, when you use a cue tip you're supposed to stop when you feel tension.

Hi - i was interested in this so looked into mineral oil :

"To get mineral oil, gasoline and kerosene are removed from the crude petroleum by heating and using sulphuric acid, applying absorbents and washing with solvents and alkalis."

(http://livingnature.com/ourproducts/badelements.html#09 at the bottom under the synthetic paraben preservatives section)

Doesn't sound too good a stuff to put in your ears - might go for the olive oil approach...

black and brown globs, eh?

uh, gee... thanks for the story, Jeremy. :yack

Originally posted by portinfer Doesn't sound too good a stuff to put in your ears - might go for the olive oil approach...

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FYI---Keep in mind that any vegetable, fruit, nut, or seed-based oil can become rancid. :yack

it's ultimately your call...

"I was told by (what I would call) a very astute girl at the hospital" ---DiverD

---This is called a second opinion.
Usually we get these from MD/Specialists.

I'm not an MD, DiverD.

Just a word of caution- please be wary of taking advice from anyone, no matter how well meaning.
I mean this in the best sense as far as responsibly giving advice: are you going with an opinion that endorses your medical needs, or your fears?
Again, I say this w/the intent to alert you, and with all respect that this decision is yours alone.

OceanSwimmer

I got some new ear drops from my ear specialist. It seems like they dry up and stimulate my ears to produce fresh vax. They do not contain antibiotics. It is a strong cortison drop instead. Before I have tried maybe 10-15 different kind of ear drops but nothing never worked like this. Hopefully my ears will become 100% healthy and manage without me needing to put something in them. Like it was before.

The ear drop comes in small plastic pipettes and you use one at a time. They are called:
Diproderm 0.05% á 0.2 ml
Betamethason
From Schering-Plough

Nothing worked like this drop for me before.

yet another genius career

Originally posted by portinfer
- might go for the olive oil approach...

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Well if it doesn't work, you could keep the oil in one ear, throw some vinegar in the other, carry a pepper mill and hire yourself out as a salad guy!

rofl

---This is called a second opinion.
Usually we get these from MD/Specialists.

I'm not an MD, DiverD.

Just a word of caution- please be wary of taking advice from anyone, no matter how well meaning.
I mean this in the best sense as far as responsibly giving advice: are you going with an opinion that endorses your medical needs, or your fears?
Again, I say this w/the intent to alert you, and with all respect that this decision is yours alone.

OceanSwimmer

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thanks Ocean, She was not a girl I had met in the waiting room, she was the hospital specialist evaluting my ear MRIs before the procedure. It was, in fact, a second opinion by a specialist. The private practice specialist who recommended the procedure in the first place seemed more interested in the class he would be giving durring my procedure, then how much I would benefit from the procedure. I'm pleased as punch with my decision, because now, if I ever want it done, I won't be subject to such crude methods.

Often when I clear my ears (valsalva sp?) I hear an audible whistle from my right ear only. Friends have said they can hear it if there right next to me when I clear my ears out of the water, and I've scared fish away from 6'.

What is this noise caused by? I have no problem clearing, no pain, no infections etc. Just kinda curious.

I can blow air bubbles out my eyeballs. No really.

Now there's a joke in there somewheres... Oh yeah, "What did the guy with his head up his ass say to the...."

Something about poor vis down south?

Actually the vis down is here is so bad I'm ready to call whine-1-1 and request a whaahh-bulance.

:hmm

post dive ears

I have only just started freediving and at the moment am totally limited by my ears - the pool I'm fine but depth is a killer on the ears. I am also a pharmacist and have made up a potion that seems to be helping that your helpful local Chemist should be able to make for you:
Use before and after all time in the water:
acetic acid 3% spirit 70% water to volume. - fill each ear canal and slosh around a bit

Post dives (ie deep when your getting pain) add 1% hydrocortisone to the above formula and use 4 drops in each ear twice daily for no more than 3 days.

Hope this helps, Jules