In this issue, Simon Pridmore takes a look at the buddy system and concludes that on many occasions your buddy is not your friend, and you would be much better off assuming that this will be the case and preparing yourself, always, to assume full responsibility for your diving.
World-renowned diving medicine expert Dr Neal Pollock gave everyone a lot to think about with his talk on the thoughtful management of decompression stress.
Neal looked at the many factors that can alter decompression stress and the practical strategies all divers can use to optimise decompression safety.
“It is increasingly common for divers to rely on dive computers for their decompression safety. Dive computers do not yet measure or integrate a multitude of factors that can alter decompression stress.”- Dr Neal Pollock.
The lead of the pilot study, Vinisha Ranna, who is also a keen scuba diver, became interested in the problem after she experienced it herself. In her case it manifested as a squeezing sensation in the teeth, known as barodontalgia
In order to see just how common and severe this problem is, she distributed a questionnaire through social media platforms dedicated to scuba diving and collected data from 100 scuba diving enthusiasts. A substantial number replied they experienced symptoms that range from tooth, jaw and gum pain to loosened crowns and broken dental fillings.
