Unstick Your Ears After A Flight

Sometimes your ears get stuck during airplane rides and even an hour later, you’ve still got a painful pressure built-up and difficulty hearing. Here’s some things you can do to unclog the works.

Take ‘diver’s candy’ – Take stuff with pseudoephedrine in it for its decongestant properties.
Suck it – sucking on a hard candy encourages swallowing, which opens up the Eustacian tubes
Yawn – yawning opens up Eustacian tubes
Chew – so does chewing
Do the Valsalva maneuver – Inhale, close your nose and mouth, and blow the air against your cheeks. Don’t overdo it, do it every few seconds and you can irritate the tubes and make it worse.
Nasal decongestant sprays – Didn’t see this recommended anywhere else but I took some Afrin and it helped clear things up.

Bonus tip – if you’re prone to problems like this, pop some pseudoephedrine a few hours before your flight to help avoid it in the first place.

RELATED: 1 ear still stuffy after flight. Is this bad? [MetaFilter] (Photo: darkpatator)

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