by Laurence Stein, DDSDiving Medicine Online Dental ConsultantDAN Referral Physician Team (2000) Question: I was doing multiple dives over more than a week and now I have limitation of jaw opening and pain in my jaw joints. What happened? Answer: This is a potential “can of worms”. There may be multiple reasons for this to...

by Laurence A Stein, DDSA Miami Dentist describes an unusual case of tooth squeeze Alert Diver September/October 1993(Reprinted with permission of the author and DAN.) “Barotrauma — or, more commonly, squeeze — of the ears and sinuses is quite likely the most common problem among divers. Another less common — almost rare— type of barotrauma...

The ‘Diving Dentist’ Addresses the Problem of a Diving-Related Toothacheby Laurence Stein, DDS Reprinted from Alert Diver, January-February 2000, pp 45-49.With permission from DAN and Laurance Stein, DDS(Edited) Although not a common ailment in scuba diving, tooth pain can be a troublesome side effect of our sport. Whether it’s a problem with your bite on...

by Laurence Stein, DDS Introduction *This patient experienced a severe barodontalgia with complications of Candida albicans infection of the mouth.† Because of the pain, she became dehydrated, infected and debilitated.† There was concern that she might have systemic problems such as HIV infection or diabetes but these were ruled out by her local MD. Perhaps...

by Larry Stein, DDSPublished in ‘Alert Diver’, March/April 2005* More people are electing to have failing or missing teeth replaced by dental implants. I have experienced an increase in the number of questions related to dental implants and scuba diving in my capacity as a dental consultant for DAN, ScubaDoc and the Scuba Board. It...

Cleft palate is a congenital condition where there is incomplete closure of some of the branchial clefts before birth. This involves the mouth and soft palate and can be related to changes in the region around the openings to the Eustachian tubes. Problems diving are related to basically two things: Difficulties associated with clearing the...

Opinions as to the proper management of the gag reflexQuestions come up fairly frequently concerning vomiting underwater and an overactive gag reflex. Dr. Murray Grossan writes:I have had some success with hyperactive gag reflex by using mirror biofeedback.Similar to my treatment for TMJ at http://www.ent-consult.com you use the mirror as a visual biofeedback device. Start...

Barodontalgia Because of Boyle’s Law, (as pressure increases, volume decreases and vice versa), diving with air-filled spaces in teeth cause problems because spaces inside teeth cannot decrease in size and increase in size in proportion to the depth under the surface. Because we are already functioning at one ATM of pressure on the surface, a...