Popping your ears can help open the eustachian tube, allowing fluid to drain. The simplest way to pop your ears is to yawn, chew, or swallow. You may also want to try popping your ears using something called the Valsalva maneuver: Take a deep breath and hold it.
Symptoms of Eustachian tube dysfunction usually go away without treatment. You can do exercises to open up the tubes. This includes swallowing, yawning, or chewing gum. You can help relieve the “full ear” feeling by taking a deep breath, pinching your nostrils closed, and “blowing” with your mouth shut.
Close your mouth, hold your nose, and gently blow as if you are blowing your nose. Yawning and chewing gum also may help. You may hear or feel a "pop" when the tubes open. To ease ear pain, apply a warm face cloth or a heating pad set on low.
If your ears are plugged, try swallowing, yawning or chewing sugar-free gum to open your eustachian tubes. If this doesn't work, take a deep breath and try to blow out of your nose gently while pinching your nostrils closed and keeping your mouth shut. If you hear a popping noise, you know you have succeeded.
Eustachian tube massage
Using firm, steady pressure, slide your finger down until you feel a groove between your ear lobe and jaw. Trace that groove all the way down your neck to your collarbone using the same firm pressure. Repeat this process three times on each side, three times a day.
What are the causes of Eustachian tube dysfunction? Colds, flus, sinus infections, or allergies can cause the Eustachian tube in one or both ears to become inflamed, preventing proper mucus drainage and leading to symptoms.
Allergies and infections (like the common cold and the flu) are the most common causes of eustachian tube dysfunction. These conditions can cause inflammation and mucus buildup, leading to blockage. GERD, or chronic acid reflux, can also cause ETD.
Popping your ears can help open the eustachian tube, allowing fluid to drain. The simplest way to pop your ears is to yawn, chew, or swallow. You may also want to try popping your ears using something called the Valsalva maneuver: Take a deep breath and hold it.
Most cases of Eustachian tube dysfunction clear up in a few days with the help of over-the-counter medication and home remedies, but symptoms can last one to two weeks. If you're still having symptoms after two weeks, or they're getting worse, you may need more aggressive treatment.
In most cases, Eustachian tube dysfunction can be managed at home. There are several different things you can try. Steam inhalation can ease symptoms by getting more warm air into your nose and subsequently your Eustachian tubes.
Blocked eustachian tubes can be relieved by nasal sprays and antihistamine tablets, which reduce inflammation and congestion. Recurrent eustachian tube dysfunction requires the surgical placement of tubes in the eardrum, which allows pressure to equalize in the middle ear.
Sometimes, dried mucus or other particles can get stuck in or near the eustachian tube and cause symptoms. Clearing the passageways can help eliminate anything clogged in the passage.
The eustachian tube opens upon swallowing or yawning by contraction of the tensor veli palatini muscle.
Eustachian tube dysfunction may occur when the mucosal lining of the tube is swollen, or does not open or close properly. If the tube is dysfunctional, symptoms such as muffled hearing, pain, tinnitus, reduced hearing, a feeling of fullness in the ear or problems with balance may occur.
Chronic ETD is unlikely to go away on its own and must be treated by a healthcare professional.
A myringotomy is a procedure to create a hole in the ear drum to allow fluid that is trapped in the middle ear to drain out. The fluid may be blood, pus and/or water. In many cases, a small tube is inserted into the hole in the ear drum to help maintain drainage.
When pressure builds up in the ears, people can usually relieve it by yawning, chewing gum, or wiggling the jaw. If these do not help, a person may need a nasal spray or other medical treatment. From altitude changes to ear infections, there are many reasons why pressure may build up in the ears.
Your ear congestion may have happened during an ear infection and never went away, or may get worse when eating certain foods, or they may have become plugged at the onset of an autoimmune condition.
This can happen for brief periods during air travel, but also due to allergies, sinus or ear infections, or other respiratory viruses (including COVID-19). Sudden onset of muffled hearing in one ear may signal an urgent problem requiring prompt treatment to prevent or reduce possible hearing loss.