I'm An Ear Doctor – You've Probably Been Popping Your Ear Wrong On Planes
Whenever I take a flight, I always think to myself: “wow, we’ve become so advanced that I’m bored at 30,000 feet.”
The only exceptions are take-off and landing, where the sudden change in speed or slam of wheels against tarmac alerts me to the plane’s mechanical prowess.
It also makes me painfully aware of how air pressure affects my ear canal. Try as I might to get rid of that annoying swimmer’s ear feeling by “popping” them, I always end up with the uncomfortable pressure.
Turns out that my attempts to quell the issue by chewing gum are misguided, though, Dr Dennis Poe, Professor of Otolaryngology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, told Thrillist.
What’s the science behind “aeroplane ears?”
Ear pain that’s caused by pressure is known as a “baro-challenge.”
It happens because the valves of the eustachian tube, which is an air vent that connects your nose to your ears, shut.
That means your ears can’t “pop,” or release pressure, properly. “You’ve got this relative vacuum in your ear” compared to the pressure in the plane, Dr Poe explained.
“That vacuum is sucking in the walls of that eustachian tube, like a rubber balloon, making it harder to pop your ear.”
It’s worse when you’re descending and when your ear is already stuffy.
What can I do about it?
Eating sweets is a good move, but not because of the chewing; you have to swallow them for it to work.
“Swallows and yawns are the way that we normally vent our ears,” he said, so a bottle of water that you can swig on your way down may be a better bet.
Don’t hold your nose and blow really hard, the doctor says, explaining that “I’ve actually seen people destroy their hearing nerve, go deaf in an ear, and have permanent dizziness from doing that.”
Instead, blow your nose gently and swallow hard, he advises.
Lastly, don’t wait to attempt to clear a stuffy plane ear ― the longer you leave a poorly balanced pressure level in your ear, the worse it’ll get.