How do our ears not flood when we go underwater?
In: Biology
The ear drum creates a seal in the ear canal. The inner ear is connected to the eyes and nasal cavity by a canal called the Eustachian tube, which is why some people can take a gulp of milk and squirt it out of there eyes or blow smoke out of their ears. Normally the inner ear is sealed and the Eustachian tube only slightly opens to stabilize air pressure and to drain fluid in the case of an ear infection or water stuck in the ear from swimming.
Mine do. I wear ear plugs when I go to the pool or beach. Or I have to slam my head against my mattress when I get home.
Hi, studying audiologist here! Basically there are separate sections to our ears: the outer ear (what you can see) the middle ear which is between the ear drum and the cochlea, and the inner ear (cochlea). The ear drum is a complete wall sealing the outer and middle ear apart from each other, so unless there’s a medical issue which you would KNOW from the pain, there’s no way that water, dirt, dust etc could get through your ear drum and into your ear 🙂
for the same reason that, if you cap one end of a straw with your finger and dip the other end into a glass of water, there won’t be any water in the straw when you pull it out.
for water to go into your ear, the air inside needs a way to get out first. unless you’ve got a medical issue, that generally doesn’t happen
Scuba diver here, your outer ear can and does flood. You get used to it, and shake the water out when you get back on the boat!
The water goes up to the eardrum, if the pressure becomes too much (like if you dive deep), the drum could burst…which you WILL hear and you won’t be able to hear outta that ear for a while
Follow-up: when you get water stuck in your “ear”, where is it actually stuck?
I know from experience, that if you let water go up into your nose and into your sinuses it can then get inside your eardrum. It hurts a bit.
Don’t know if this is useful to anyone but I’ve had ‘glue ear’ several times while on holiday after diving into pools (not scuba) and it’s painful. Tip: it’s av. €140 for treatment. Any spray decongestant (e.g Synex, UK) will clear it within a few minutes 🙂
Just did the certification for being an open water diver. Water can enter into your ears, but only if your eardrum breaks when you don’t equalize the rising pressure from the water as you’re descending.
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