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how to get rid of ear discomfort from airplane rides

post #1 of 35
3/2/10 at 4:54am
Thread Starter 
Im going to visit my family and friend back in thailand this friday!! Anyways, how do you get rid of ear pressure when you're in an airplane?? I usually try to yawn and chew a gum but that doesnt really help, lol. Any ideas?
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post #2 of 35
3/2/10 at 5:00am
This is not a direct answer to your question, but I'd say, take some sleeping pills to fall asleep and you won't have to bother with ear pressure, horrible in flight meals or the annoying guy who'll be sitting next to you for the next 14 hours.
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post #3 of 35
3/2/10 at 5:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by beamthegreat View Post
Im going to visit my family and friend back in thailand this friday!! Anyways, how do you get rid of ear pressure when you're in an airplane?? I usually try to yawn and chew a gum but that doesnt really help, lol. Any ideas?
Open the door!
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post #4 of 35
3/2/10 at 5:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by balderon View Post
Open the door!
I thought getting to Thailand in one piece is one of the requirements.
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post #5 of 35
3/2/10 at 5:20am
Well sealing IEMs/Earplugs. I used to have horrible problems with pressure changes during flights to the point where I could be nursing a bad earache for at least an hour after the flight had landed. Ever since I switched to IEMs on airplanes, I've found that I have less discomfort so it bothers me less.
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post #6 of 35
3/2/10 at 5:40am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by appophylite View Post
Well sealing IEMs/Earplugs. I used to have horrible problems with pressure changes during flights to the point where I could be nursing a bad earache for at least an hour after the flight had landed. Ever since I switched to IEMs on airplanes, I've found that I have less discomfort so it bothers me less.
What do you mean by "sealing" iems? Is it the triple-flang tips or just the regular ones.
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post #7 of 35
3/2/10 at 6:02am
I didn't look this up, but my educated guess is that you have ear discomfort because the cabin pressure gets pretty low when the plane is up in the air, much lower than the pressure in your mid ear, thus pressuring your ear diaphragm to bulge outwards.

If that is true then wearing ear plugs, or sealing IEMs would help, because it eliminates the pressure difference. However once you take them off... which is something you can't really avoid... oh well.

The chewing gum/yawning method you've already mentioned actually gets to the root of the problem: releasing pressure from your mid ear.

I still think trying to sleep is the best thing to do. If my international flight is in the morning I usually won't sleep the previous night so I can just doze off naturally. Not sleeping in transpacific flights will usually give me extended jet lag, esp. flying west to Asia.
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post #8 of 35
3/2/10 at 6:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by appophylite View Post
Well sealing IEMs/Earplugs. I used to have horrible problems with pressure changes during flights to the point where I could be nursing a bad earache for at least an hour after the flight had landed. Ever since I switched to IEMs on airplanes, I've found that I have less discomfort so it bothers me less.
DONT ever do that.

it poses a serious risk of injury.

i posted a thread last year on how i had a sharp tearing pain in my nasal cavity and my eyes started leaking tears while wearing closed headphones during landing.

if u dont let the pressure in your body normalize with the cabin pressure..your gonna be in serious trouble.
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post #9 of 35
3/2/10 at 7:44am
May be this would help.

Aerospaceweb.org | Ask Us - Air Pressure & Sinus Headaches
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post #10 of 35
3/2/10 at 8:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by balderon View Post
Open the door!
Do that and we won't have anymore beam threads

You must be the active member with the most locked threads.
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post #11 of 35
3/2/10 at 12:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nocturnal310 View Post
DONT ever do that.

it poses a serious risk of injury.

i posted a thread last year on how i had a sharp tearing pain in my nasal cavity and my eyes started leaking tears while wearing closed headphones during landing.

if u dont let the pressure in your body normalize with the cabin pressure..your gonna be in serious trouble.
I've to date never had a problem with sharp tearing pain in my nasal cavity when wearing IEMs on the plane. I have had that occur when I fly with really bad congestion.

By well sealing IEMs, I meant ones that sit comfortably and well inside your ear cavity. Depending on the size of your ear, you'll find the right style tip: I've found that the foams don't help me much at all but the silicone small single or triple flange works for my purpose.
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post #12 of 35
3/2/10 at 12:45pm
I used to have problems with flying in terms of ear pain, because I had near-constant low-level (and occasional more severe) allergies from hay fever, pets, etc. If you think you may have that sort of problem, you might try taking a decongestant or anti-histamine to help clear you up and make it easier to clear your ears on the plane.

I didn't really realize what my problem was until after I moved to the city and stopped having pollen/plant allergies all the time. Flying has been much easier ever since.
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post #13 of 35
3/2/10 at 1:03pm
Balancing out the pressure by blowing the nose tend to work for me.
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post #14 of 35
3/2/10 at 6:57pm
Gum is my saviour. I have huge problems when flying.

Anyway. . .. it's banned!!!!!
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post #15 of 35
3/2/10 at 7:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MomijiTMO View Post
Gum is my saviour. I have huge problems when flying.

Anyway. . .. it's banned!!!!!
whew...
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