Whether you're living it up in first class or counting down the seconds until you land in coach, one thing's for sure: No amount of cushy comforts can protect you from the very real struggle that is airplane ear—a pesky pain caused by rapid changes in altitude as your flight takes off and lands.
Its grown-up name is aerotitis, and symptoms can range in severity from mild pressure in your ear (similar to being underwater) to full-blown hearing loss. When there's a change in altitude, our body equalizes the pressure between the middle ear and our environment by opening our eustachian tubes (the tube between the nose and ear). Only in this case, it isn't able to do so fast enough, says Ileana Showalter, M.D., ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist at Mercy Medical Center. This is why our ears can feel clogged when we fly.
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There are plenty of things you can try to minimize ear pain in the air and post-flight, all of which focus on opening your eustachian tubes. Start with the basics: Fight off discomfort during take-offs and landings by chewing gum, sucking on candies, swallowing, and yawning, suggests Eugene Chio, M.D., ENT expert at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Doing so will stretch open your eustachian tubes and help keep pressure from building up.
You can also try pinching your nose closed, taking a deep breath, and attempting to push air through your eustachian tubes, which will essentially "pop" your ears. However, this technique should be avoided if you've got an upper respiratory, nasal, or sinus infection. "The technique could drive infected mucus into the ear and cause an ear infection," says Howard Moskowitz, M.D., Ph.D., who specializes in ENT problems and neurological disorders of the ear at Montefiore Health System in New York. (Ick.)
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If that doesn't work, a nasal spray might. "Some people may see improved ability to balance the atmospheric pressure through the use of nasal sprays (nasal saline, steroids, and decongestants), but this should be discussed with your physician prior to use," he says. Finally, if you're an allergy sufferer, the Mayo Clinic suggests taking your meds an hour before your flight.
But don't be surprised if you find yourself hella jealous that your travel partner experiences less ear pain than you do—or vice-versa. "Some people have an underlying dysfunction of their eustachian tubes, which leads to a higher likelihood of having issues during airline travel," says Moskowitz. If you have a long history of ear infections (a clear indicator of defective eustachian tubes) or you have nasal and sinus problems, you may be more prone to ear pain during travel. Womp, womp.
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The bottom line: If you’ve got an underlying ear issue, these options may not work for you, so it's best to discuss options with your doc. What's more, if you find your ears are still blocked after a few hours or days—even after trying everything you could during and post-flight to fix the problem—you should work with your doc to come up with a treatment plan, says Moskowitz. And it goes without saying that if you're experiencing things like pain, hearing loss, ringing in the ears, dizziness, or icky ear drainage, you should already be sitting in the waiting room to find out if your ear issues could be the sign of something more. Like, right now. Doctor's orders.
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