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How Can You Decrease the Pressure in Your Ears When Flying?

March 08, 2017
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3 min read
girl closing ears in the airplane
How Can You Decrease the Pressure in Your Ears When Flying?
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Quora.com is a question-and-answer site where content is written and edited by its community of users. Occasionally we syndicate content from the site if we think it will interest TPG readers. This article originally appeared on Quora.com in response to the question Often When I Fly in Planes, I Experience a Lot of Pressure in My Ears. How Can I Help This? and was written by Attila Gyuris.

The following is not official medical advice. Contact a doctor if you have any questions regarding this article.

Ear pain problems due to cabin air pressurization during flight occur mostly during descents, almost never during climbs. During climbs, the air inside the ear can always escape out quite easily and thus equalize.

The difficulty is during descents. During descents, the air is trying to go back into the middle ear to equalize the pressure as you descend to higher air pressures (or the cabin pressure is pressurizing or is "descending"). And for some reason the air path into your middle ear is not clear. It could be due to a cold, a sinus infection, an ear drum blockage due to an infection, what have you, or simply, because of the way your ear structure is built. Some people seldom experience pain; others do all the time.

You can try the "Vasalva maneuver." This means you pinch your nostrils shut, close your mouth hard, and gently blow air out until you hear a pop and the air pressure inside your ears is equalized. The pain due to pressure imbalance should immediately go away. Scuba divers do this maneuver all the time when diving down to higher pressures in the water.

The other method, more preventative in nature, is to chew gum or suck on a piece of candy before starting descent. If you don't have any gum or candy, you can try to drink sips of water and swallow or, as a last resort, move your jaw around and try to make swallowing movements.

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The idea here is that as you move your jaw and swallow while chewing or sucking on the candy, or sipping water or simply moving your jaw around, the ear canal occasionally gets straightened out a little and hopefully will open just enough to allow bits of air to sneak past the eardrum and equalize the air pressure inside the middle ear with the pressure outside the ears.

Featured image by Getty Images/iStockphoto

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  • Packed with credits foodies will enjoy
  • Solid welcome bonus

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  • Some may have trouble using Uber and other dining credits
  • You may be eligible for as high as 100,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer. Apply to know if you’re approved and find out your exact welcome offer amount – all with no credit score impact. If you’re approved and choose to accept the Card, your score may be impacted.
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  • $100 Resy Credit: Get up to $100 in statement credits each calendar year after you pay with the American Express® Gold Card to dine at U.S. Resy restaurants or make other eligible Resy purchases. That's up to $50 in statement credits semi-annually. Enrollment required.
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  • Explore over 1,000 upscale hotels worldwide with The Hotel Collection and receive a $100 credit towards eligible charges* with every booking of two nights or more through AmexTravel.com. *Eligible charges vary by property.
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