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.
Swallowing or yawning opens the eustachian tube and allows air to flow into or out of the middle ear. This helps equalize pressure on either side of the ear drum. If the eustachian tube is blocked, the air pressure in the middle ear is different than the pressure on the outside of the eardrum.
Clogged ears can also result from swollen or blocked eustachian tubes, which connect the middle ear to the back of the throat. 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).
Effective home remedies for safe fluid drainage include jiggling the earlobe, using gravity, creating a vacuum, using a blow dryer, trying ear drops or sprays, trying more water, inhaling steam, and gargling with saltwater.
For most people, blocked ears are a temporary condition that will clear up when the pressure in the ears returns to normal. However, if this doesn't happen a visit to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) professional may be helpful.
Three at-home remedies are the Valsalva maneuver, hydrogen peroxide, and ear drops. Valsalva maneuver: The first remedy, better known as popping your ears, involves holding your nose and keeping your lips closed while blowing out forcefully. Your cheeks will puff up and, hopefully, your ears will pop.
Exactly how long your blockage will last depends, not unexpectedly, on what the cause of the blockage is. You may need to get medical attention if your blockage isn't the kind that clears itself up quickly. You shouldn't let your blockage linger for longer than a week, as a general rule, without having it examined.
In almost all cases, your blockage will clear itself up after a few days. But the general rule of thumb is that if things persist for more than a week or so, it might be a good decision to come in for a consultation. Early indications of hearing loss can also feel like blocked ears.
Ear drops alone will clear a plug of earwax in most cases. Put 2 or 3 drops of ordinary olive oil down the ear 2 or 3 times a day for 2-3 weeks. This softens the wax so that it then runs out of its own accord without harming the ear. You can continue for any length of time, but 3 weeks is usually enough.
Pseudoephedrine is used to relieve nasal or sinus congestion caused by the common cold, sinusitis, and hay fever and other respiratory allergies. It is also used to relieve ear congestion caused by ear inflammation or infection.
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 make the pressure equal between the inside and outside of your ears.
Pop Your Ears by Holding Your Nose
Then close your mouth and nostrils with your fingers. Lightly blow out against the pressure. This should make your ears pop. The pressure you're blowing against forces your Eustachian tubes open a little which drains pressure and fluid stuck in your ear.
Colds, allergies, infected adenoids, or sinusitis, can cause congestion of the nose and eustachian tube. This congestion causes the tube to be blocked. With the tube blocked the fluid in the middle ear cannot drain.
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.
Soften and loosen the earwax with warm mineral oil. You also can try hydrogen peroxide mixed with an equal amount of room temperature water. Place 2 drops of the fluid, warmed to body temperature, in the ear two times a day for up to 5 days.
Sinus or ear infections, allergies and other respiratory viruses — all of which can cause swelling and fluid in the ear — are common causes of Eustachian tube dysfunction.
To do this, just gently massage the outside of the ear using circular movements. That way, the impaction will soften, which can help the earwax drain more easily. Once you've finished making these circular movements, pull your ear slightly backwards, from the lobe to the top of the auricle.
Even a very minor infection will cause slight discomfort and pressure in your ear. If this turns into sharp, stabbing pain, you need to see a doctor. If the blockage that's causing the infection is bad enough, it puts a lot of strain on your eardrum. Because this is a very sensitive organ, the result is extreme.