Scuba Diving and Swim Molds

[jayhans at mail.idt.net.]

>We have a patient in our office who is an avid scuba diver.  He has had some
>recent trouble with a small perforation of the TM.  The holeis healed now,
>but he has some trouble with ear pain when he is diving and is worried about
>a repeat perforation and water into the middle ear space.  My initial
>thoughts were of the "Ear Planes" plugs used for airplane flyers to maintain
>constant ear canal pressure to avoid painful pressure upon the TM.  The
>patient told me that a diver needs to be able to politzerize their ears when
>diving to avoid such pressure and pain problems.
>
>Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions, or any products used by divers to
>help with these problems?
>
>Jeff
>
Jeff, the use of any earplug, even the type you mention is strictly 
a prohibition when scuba diving.  On descent the pressure of 2 -4 ATM
of pressure would easily push plugs down the EAM causing intense pain
and possibly a panic reaction.  I do the audio section of commercial
dive physicals at the shipyard where I work and have advised divers for
at least 10 years now (besides diving myself). 
	My recommendation would be to keep his diving shallow (<30 feet)
for while and see if his condition improves OR if he is fanatical,
there is a full face/head mask that keeps the ears at one ATM regardless
of depth (sold by Dive-Rite) its cumbersome, but apparently works well.