ear protection

Reeve

Member
Has anyone had experience using a Scubapro or IST Pro Ear Mask (or similar) to prevent damage to their ears whilst using drills or percussion tooling underwater.

I thought in conjunction with moulded ear plugs they might be enough of a barrier to prevent damage to hearing.

Thanks
Gareth
 

DAN

New member
It should not make any difference as human beings are 90% water and the sound travels streight through you while diveing. Also if they did work you would have to shave your head to get a seal.

Dan
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
I'm not sure you're right Dan - they do seal without any shaving - a mate who cave dives regularly with me uses one of these masks because he's had problems with an ear infection. I think the main issue (if using these masks in attempts to mitigate against hearing damage) is that a significant amount of sound reaches the cochlea of the inner ear via bone transmission, so just shielding the outer ears wouldn't prevent this. (I've exchanged a couple of PMs with Reeve about it directly since his original question was posted.)
 

dalepgray

New member
I know this is a late post on this topic, and I am probably too late to help the original poster,  but for anyone else reading it.

You must NEVER wear earplugs whilst diving - a Pro-Ear mask will not alter this rule as they equalize the airspace around your ears via a tube that goes to the mask, so you still have the pressure differential that will damage your ears.

As to whether a pro-ear mask will act as ear defenders I don't know, it should help but by how much I don't know.

As to surface ear defenders again I don't know how much help they will be but if you are going to try them you must put them on or in at the depth you are going to need them and REMOVE THEM before altering your depth (even by a few feet), as resulting pressure differentials across your ear drum may cause damage.
 
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