Best way to make my ears pop?

Question

What is the best way to make my ears pop when landing on a plane? The hold-your-nose-and-pitch method is very painful; are there any other methods to pop ears?

Answer 1

While a full yawn is best, simulating the movement your jaw makes in a yawn is enough to pop your ears (and often simulating a yawn makes a real one happen anyway)

If you have a cold, or if you let the pressure build up a lot it can be difficult to get the eustachian tubes to open, so in those instances I hold my nose, close my mouth and gently try and blow.

This is one you want to try gently, as blowing too hard could actually damage your ear drums, so practice doing it with relaxed cheeks (almost as if you were playing a trumpet.) You can also just try one eardrum at a time, which can make this easier and safer.

Answer 2

Well personally, I find a yawn is by far the easiest and least painful way of inducing the so-called 'pop'.

From Wikipedia:

"Under normal circumstances, the human Eustachian tube is closed, but it can open to let a small amount of air through to prevent damage by equalizing pressure between the middle ear and the atmosphere. Pressure differences cause temporary conductive hearing loss by decreased motion of the tympanic membrane and ossicles of the ear. Various methods of ear clearing such as yawning, swallowing, or chewing gum, may be used intentionally to open the tube and equalize pressures. When this happens, humans hear a small popping sound, an event familiar to aircraft passengers, scuba divers, or drivers in mountainous regions.

Answer 3

I have had ear difficulties since I was a baby, and was inflicted with many earaches as a youngster.

My ears feel pressure very easily. If I do not aggressively pop my ears during a plane ride, I will have an earache by the second flight of the day.

Here my ear-popping mechanisms, with the easiest-to-do-without-practice listed first:

1. Yawning - as Kate noted, it's pretty easy to induce yawning. Personally, I can usually start yawning after about 20 seconds of just thinking about yawns. If I had a kid with ear pain on a flight, I would simply start talking to them about yawning, and then yawn in their faces - you get the fun of using social engineering to get somebody to yawn, and they get have their ears magically stop hurting!

2. Swallowing deliberately - while clenching the back of the throat a bit more than usual, I found this to be a pretty effective (and easily repeatable, once you've gotten a drink from the flight attendant) method for draining the fluid from my ear-pipes.

   However, I rarely use these techniques any more after mastering the following:

3. The pinched-nose-blow - the Valsava mentioned by Kate and others. Pinch the nose, close the mouth, breath out in a quick burst through the nose. HOWEVER - to avoid increasing the pressure in your ears in a counterproductive manner:

   • Don't actually pinch your nose shut. Pinch it mostly shut. Air should still be able to escape through both nostrils, just not nearly as easily as normal.
   • While I have the best luck with quick breaths out, it's important not to breathe too hard. A bit of practice can help you find the right amount of pressure before you start to go to far.

   I have found the above method to be highly effective without requiring much practice. I've used it quite a bit.

4. The jaw-wiggle - after years of using the above tricks, I can relieve most pressure by simply flexing the muscles at the back of the jaw slightly while moving my jaw a bit to the right or left.

   If you combine this with a quick practiced breath out through the nose (even without pinching), you can relieve pressure in your ears surprisingly effectively.

   On a plane ride where I'm doing this for a good stretch of time, I will usually do about 5-6 of these, then stretch my jaw wide in a yawn-like motion, and then go back to the jaw-flexing.

Earaches are awful. Some of the worst pain I've experienced in my life was caused by ear pressure.

Whatever you do, don't do nothing. Don't wait until the pain wakes you up to start relieving the pressure.

Start using any of these techniques (they all do work) as soon as you feel any pressure in your ears, at any time during the flight.

It's a lot easier to keep your head (ears?) above water if you can stop the pressure from escalating.

Answer 4

For prevention, I suggest chewing imaginary gum. Just do exactly what you would do if you had remembered to put gum in your mouth as descent started.

Once I'm in pain (eg I wake up from it, which has happened), I do the Valsava - pinch your nose shut and do just what you'd do to blow your nose. It's up to you how hard you "blow" - start gentle and work up if it's not working. You can feel the pressure equalize and the pain stops.

If you'd rather yawn, it might help to know it's a very contagious word. Most people will scratch themselves if someone else does, or if someone says the word itchy, or just from reading the word itchy (my doctor told me they were actually trained how to ask someone "does it itch?" without scratching themselves.) Yawn is a little less contagious so just reading it might not do the trick, but saying it aloud should work. Failing that, fake a yawn to infect someone near you - their real yawn should trigger one for you.

Answer 5

Earplugs. There are many brands, they're cheap and after you've put them in you don't need to worry about doing any facial contortions since they help to automatically relieve pressure. Also obviously cuts back on aircraft engine noise and the sound of yet another excitable/crying child.

Answer 6

Just keep yawning since you sat down on the plane seat, keep yawning until the plane lands. You don't feel any pain when you yawn a lot through the journey.