Ear won't pop

[mystery]

@mk56

The best way I know to alleviate the pain is to blow out through your nose while pinching your nose shut. You have to do it pretty hard, but if you do it right, you will get the click/pop in your ear and it will start to return to normal. I have to do this, or the pain would make flying pretty intolerable.

A warning on this, however: I do this entirely too much. It’s habit forming. At one point, when I had a combination allergy attack/sinus infection, I got my ears to pop open. I was pretty elated, until I noticed everything spinning, and the world just slowly fading away. This could have been really bad, as I was driving a car at the time.

Luckily, I was just slowing down to a stop sign at the time, and I had enough presence of mind to say to my wife: “Honey, I’m fainting, grab the wheel.” I couldn’t have been out for more than a few seconds, as I came to with my foot firmly planted on the break, and my wife saying my name louder and louder. I know it wasn’t too long as she hadn’t gotten to the Panic Panic mode in her voice, yet.

[Gladguy]

Head On. Apply directly to forehead.

[Waltzer]

@Gladguy

Head On. Apply directly to forehead.

Active-On. Apply directly where it hurts.

[Podunk]

@Hanzii

You need this - I’m sure if you hold your nose it will clear your ears too.

I don’t know if you’re being ironic or not, but I wouldn’t trade my neti pot for the world. Doesn’t do much for my ears, but my sinuses are a disaster without it.

[Charlatan]

@Podunk

I don’t know if you’re being ironic or not, but I wouldn’t trade my neti pot for the world. Doesn’t do much for my ears, but my sinuses are a disaster without it.

Yeah, using a neti pot is indeed somewhat disgusting, but the results can’t be argued with. They are great for clearing out sinuses.

[ElGuapo]

You just know there is a neti pot sex site. Neti pots and choggle pants.

Groooooooooooooooooooosssssssss.

[tromik]

@Hanzii

You need this - I’m sure if you hold your nose it will clear your ears too.

Is there a name for the fetish where people want to catch that drainage in their mouths? Just curious.

[Podunk]

That’s a damn good question. We’ve got piss, shit and puke fetishes, where’s the snot fetishists?

[Rywill]

@Podunk

I don’t know if you’re being ironic or not,

Saddest thing I’ve ever seen on the internet :)

[Squirrel_Killer]

@mk56

The best way I know to alleviate the pain is to blow out through your nose while pinching your nose shut. You have to do it pretty hard, but if you do it right, you will get the click/pop in your ear and it will start to return to normal.

I used to do this all the time until I finally got off my ass and saw an ENT, but now when I do that, the tubes he put in my ears make this nice whistling sound.

[Old_Man_Gravy]

If you blow harder or softer, does the pitch change? Like, could you do a song?

[Tyjenks]

@Coca_Cola_Zero

Go to the drug store and buy generic Debrox (carbamide peroxide – hydrogen perodixe works OK too in a pinch, if you happen to have some of that laying around). Let it sit in your ear for a few minutes and then flush with one of those ear bulb thingies (some places sell the bulbs with the earwax remover). I know you said you tried earwax remover, but make sure you try using one of those bulbs to flush your ears after the peroxide has softened up the wax and shoot the water out of the bulb fairly forceably (but don’t stick the bulb directly in your ear canal). The high-pressure (within reason – don’t blow out your eardrum) flushing part is pretty important, in my experience (I’ve had this issue a couple of times after a few days of lots of swimming).

Also resist the temptation to try to clear the wax out directly with a Q-Tip. While it does let you get some of the wax out, it generally causes some of the wax to pack down and makes things a lot worse because the tighter the wax is, the less the peroxide can get underneath to soften it up.

You may have to repeat the earwax remover/flushing a few times for the desired results, but don’t do it for more than 5 days in a row (if its that bad, see a doctor, if at all possible).

Also, while your ears are still blocked drink a carbonated beverage. The amount of noise the fizz of the soda makes in your mouth when your ears are blocked is quite amusing.

Let me add my vote.

First give it a few days to work out on its own if you have not already. I imagine you have.

I have had ear issues for nearly 15 years and, when they were simple problems such as blockage, hyrdogen peroxide always worked fine. I do not remember it taking more than once or twice to do the trick. I always tried to wait until the bubbling had ceased to make sure most of it had done its work before the flushing.

Also, ditto on not using Q-Tips for exactly why Zero put.

What is fun is the high pressure suction the ENT uses to peel back debris and tissue from your ear canal. That is when it is good and f’ed up in there. You prolly don’t have to worry about that…yet. [cue ominous music]

[Moore]

@Hanzii

You need this - I’m sure if you hold your nose it will clear your ears too.

My wife has one of those…things.

[VonGuard]

I have exceptionally narrow ear passageways, and I have found that the best cure comes from Asia. They make these little wooden picks with a curved end, like a wooden coke spoon with a tassle and doodad on the other end for decoration. Got to an asian supermarket, preferably Korean or Japanese, and look for packages of two of these guys near the hand soap and personal goods.

Alternately, open your nearest box of Lego Technix, select a long pnematic rubber tube, and insert one end in your ear and the other in your mouth. Make a seal on both ends and suck suck suck.

Always sterilize these things before putting them in yer ear. I piss on my equipment first.

[JoshV]

Anybody else find it amusing that the scuba diving thread and the ear problem were right next to each other?

[quatoria]

@JoshV

Anybody else find it amusing that the scuba diving thread and the ear problem were right next to each other?

Nope.