#21063 - 05/12/05 02:41 PM
answers needed with diving myth
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sarah
Junior Member
Registered: 04/29/05
Posts: 12
Loc: Kansas
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My fiance and I are planning our honeymoon to BoraBora in October. I really want to go diving while we are there, but someone told my fiance that if you have had cavities filled in the past there is a possibility that they have air pockets and could burst while underwater. I have a really hard time believing this especially since we will be new divers and not going to far underwater.
Can someone please clear up this diving myth so I can convince my fiance to go diving with me???!!!
thanks
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#21064 - 05/12/05 03:52 PM
Re: answers needed with diving myth
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STM
Expert Advisor
Registered: 10/15/01
Posts: 1616
Loc: Oregon, USA
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If you have air under a filling, I'd imagine there would be pain on a daily basis. But let's assume you can have an air pocket without knowing it.
At sea level, that air has a certain volume at an external pressure of 1 atmosphere. Call that volume "X". At 30 feet, the external pressure is 2 atmospheres, so the volume of the air POCKET is still the same but the volume of air within it is 1/2 X. There is some INward pressure on the filling itself, but the pocket volume underneath it is so small, there is no chance of IMplosion.
You return to the surface and the volume of the pocket and the volume of the air return to X - exactly the same as when you started. Therefore, no exploding fillings.
If there were anything to the myth, it would be attached to flying in airplanes when the atmospheric pressure is reduced, therby causing the air in the air pocket to try to expand, thereby putting OUTward pressure on the filling, thereby causing the alleged risk of explosion.
Doesn't heppen. Myth busted.
To make this happen, you'd probably have to have you tooth filled in an underwater chamber at about 100 feet depth, then rocket yourself into space. But the trip would explode your veins before it exploded any fillings, so you're dead anyway, who cares if your fillings are still intact?
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#21065 - 05/13/05 10:58 AM
Re: answers needed with diving myth
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JarredK3
Member
Registered: 05/13/05
Posts: 83
Loc: New York
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I have heard this one too, and while STM properly busted this myth, there is some truth behind it. Though extremely rare, and in my many years of diving I've never seen or heard of someone actually experiencing this, there is a possibility that a dentist could only partially fill a cavity, leaving a small air-pocket. As STM stated as you descend the air in the pocket will compress (though I believe 2 atms is actually about 33 feet in water, not 30 feet  ). You'd probably feel the pain and ascend far before any damage could be done. Surely before any possible implosion. Perhaps if you continue on down to 2,000 feet an implosion would occur - that would be the least of your problems at that point, though.
As far as STM's airplane analysis - since planes are pressurized to about 8,000 feet (less than one atm), you would probably not even notice any pain if you had an airspace.
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#21066 - 05/13/05 12:37 PM
Re: answers needed with diving myth
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Bob from NJ
Member
Registered: 02/07/05
Posts: 259
Loc: New Jersey
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Hi sarah,
Won't even try to go near the advice STM and JarredK3 have offered. They are really on top of it.
I've done my share of diving, plus at some good depths. Have a few fillings, and never had any problems with my teeth. Used to get headaches, however, found out years later it was my sinuses. Over time they became blocked.
Never heard of any implosions with fillings in all the times I've dove.
I did see an article in a DAN (Divers Alert Network) magazine about how one DiveMaster was having problems with pain in his jaw. He had a recent filling and his tooth was cracked. He demanded a new filling and all was fine after. This is his living. Also a very rare case from what I've experienced.
Hope this helps.
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#21067 - 05/13/05 02:52 PM
Re: answers needed with diving myth
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sarah
Junior Member
Registered: 04/29/05
Posts: 12
Loc: Kansas
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Thanks so much everyone!! I am going to share this wonderful info with my fiance and hopefully we will be diving in Bora Bora!!
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