Dear Fit,
Whenever I fly I get this horrible pain in my ears, right as we're descending, about 15 minutes before we land. It's excruciating and sometimes I can't hear well a few hours after the flight. What causes this and is there any way to prevent it? I am traveling soon for my Summer vacation and am not looking forward to flying.
— Pain in the Ear
Great that you're taking a vacation. They are great for stress relief. It sounds like you suffer the condition aptly named airplane ear. More scientifically it's known as barotrauma or barotitis media, but whatever the name, the pain can be really intense and can cause ringing or bleeding in your ear, dizziness, or temporary hearing loss.
To hear what causes it and how to ease your pain read more.
This condition is pretty common and is caused by rapid changes in altitude or air pressure, which causes an unequal pressure between your middle ear and the air outside your ear. This makes your eardrum bulge outward or retract inward, which hurts, and can even cause a ruptured eardrum. You've probably also experienced it when swimming in deep water or driving through the mountains.
Swallowing or yawning should help ease your discomfort because the Eustachian tube, which connects your middle ear to the back of your nose, opens and allows air to flow into or out of your middle ear, equalizing the pressure. If you're congested though because of a cold or allergies, this tube can be blocked, causing pain, muffled sound, and temporary hearing loss.
To prevent this from happening on future flights, try taking an over-the-counter decongestant such as Sudafed about 30 to 60 minutes before your flight. This will help to dry up mucus from your nose and sinuses. While you're flying, chew gum or suck on a cough drop. This will encourage frequent swallowing, which helps to activate the muscles that open your Eustachian tubes. Also, don't sleep when the plane is descending, so you can be sure you're swallowing often. I hope this helps and happy travels.
Elle Macpherson
Dolce & Gabbana
Jette Joop
I have the same problem. I use the decongestant and I also use earplanes. There is an offbrand as well. Airports usually have them for around $9, drugstores usually have them for about $5. If you ask for earplanes at the drug store someone should be able to help, they are usually around the earplug/first aid section. Its sort of like earplugs but plastic and weirder looking. They can get uncomfortable during long flights but to not have serious pain for 2 days it's worth it.
1My brother gets this REALLY badly as he had ear tubes as a child and it has affected him since. Chewing gum, yawning or swallowing does not help him. I also get this if I've got a cold so the Sudafed is the best relief, however they now make some "special" (and yes, overpriced) earplugs called "Earplanes" (they also are made by other brands) that you put on before take off and landing - my brother used them recently on a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong and testified they helped a lot, but didn't take all the pain away. So it might be worth getting some of those.
2Sorry for the repetitive comment.
3I'd add another vote for Earplanes -- they dramatically improved the quality of my life. Every time I'd fly, I'd feel like my head was going to explode (even with the strategies mentioned in the post). No matter how much I swallow or yawn, my ears won't un-pop. With Earplanes in, I either get no popping or a simple swallow will do the trick. I tend to reuse them more than is recommended (and just clean them), because they are expensive, but so worth it.
4i get this so badly
sucking on a hard boiled sweet helps too x i also find that if i dive into
the water too soon after flying that it prolongs the earache and i can pick up an infection easily too x so now i try not to go under water till at least two days into my holiday- just to be
on the safe side.
5I find Muscinex DM works the best for me--i travel a lot for work and i need something pretty heavy duty to stop my ears from hurting. Take it about4 hours before hand and again after you get off your flight. It definitely takes the edge off!
6this only happened to me once, and i think it was directly related to my bad cold...but wow i really thought my head will explode!!!
7I've never heard of Earplanes, but they sound really great. My husband gets a lot of pressure in his ears when he flies, but chewing gum seems to at least help it a little. I've always just chewed gum during the takeoff and landing and that seems to work fine for me.
8This happens to me every flight. I bought ear plugs and I chew gum. I remember once it hurt so bad, I cried for a good 25 mins.
9I have chronic sinus issues so I've been dealing with this for years. I have 2 fool-proof solutions: #1: before you get on the plane, put 2 sprays of Afrin or other nasal decongestant in each nostril. then you dont have the hyper side effects of sudafed. #2: when you feel the plane start to descend (ears popping), hold your nose and blow air into the closed nostrils. Not hard enough for anything to come out (ew) but pretty hard. This clears my ears like nothing else, and I do it periodically throught the descent.
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