In this article, we shall explore easy ways and remedies to pop ears. This feeling that you need to pop ears occurs when there is an imbalance in ear pressure. This is because the Eustachian tubes located in the inner ear get blocked. These tubes play the role of draining fluid and maintaining pressure in your ears.
Easy Ways to Pop Ears:
A blocked ear can suddenly occur when there is a drop in air pressure outside our body. This is why sometimes you feel the need to pop your ears on a flight. There are other reasons for this feeling to develop, like when you have a head cold or a blocked sinus. This stuffed or blocked sensation ranges from mildly uncomfortable to downright painful. Fortunately, there are a variety of easy methods and home remedies to pop ears.
1.) Yawn to Unblock Ears Naturally
The most natural way to pop ears is by yawning. When you yawn, the muscles of your face stretch out. Consequently, the inner ear muscles and tubes as well get stretched. This helps in unblocking the Eustachian tubes. Try inducing a yawn to pop ears.
- Open your mouth just a little and see if you can induce a yawn. If this does not work, open your mouth wider. Think about how it feels to yawn. Keep slowly opening your mouth in an “O” shape. Most likely, it will come naturally after this.
- Stop once you feel your ears pop. You will feel this relief when the balance in pressure is restored. You will feel/hear a “pop!” sound, and your hearing becomes clearer.
- If nothing else, then tip your head back as if to look at the sky and thrust your jaw forward. This might allow your Eustachian tubes to fall back into place and un-pop the pressure. It may be another way to induce a yawn.
2.) Pop Ears Fast with Hard Candy
This method is another easy way to pop ears. It is especially relevant to helping children pop their blocked ears. If you have a child on a flight, you may hand them some hard candies or lozenges to suck on. This helps to equalize the pressure.
- Suck on the hard candy.
- Remember not to chew down on the candy. You must keep sucking on it for a while to pop your ears and restore balance.
3.) Valsalva Maneuver to Pop Ears
This method may sound complicated by name, but in reality, it is quite a simple one. The Valsalva maneuver works on the theory that applying counter-pressure helps to pop ears. Follow these steps to perform this remedy.
- Close your mouth and pinch your nose shut. Now try to exhale through your nose. This pressure should help to pop open the ears, and equalize the pressure to return the ears to normal.
- Remember to be extremely gentle whilst performing this maneuver. There is no need to do it with great force. Furthermore, if done too hard or too frequently, this can lead to irritation and inflammation of the Eustachian tubes. This makes it harder to clear them in the future.
4.) Water to Pop Ears Naturally
This is an easy and fast method to pop ears naturally. Most times, just the action of swallowing can help to clear blocked ears. Sometimes, it is hard to mimic that pressure, so drinking a large glass of water may be helpful for that.
- Get yourself a large glass of water, and drink it. This motion combines many effective techniques together.
- While drinking this glass of water, tilt your head back. This positions your Eustachian tubes correctly. Now take large gulps to equalize the pressure you feel in your ears.
- If this technique is done right, then you should immediately feel the ears pop, and any pain you felt earlier will be relieved.
5.) Chewing Gum to Pop Ears Fast
One other easy method to solve the problem of blocked Eustachian tubes is to chew on a piece of gum. It is found that chewing, or even simply the act of chewing, can help to pop ears. Similar to yawning, chewing gum may be used as a preventive measure, as well.
- Make sure the gum you use to chew is soft and stretchy enough. You need to chew large enough to open your throat in order to equalize the pressure in your ears.
- If you have no gum on hand, then all you need to do is mimic the chewing motion. But make sure you don’t have an audience. Make comically large fake chewing motions to achieve the desired results. Chew as if you bit off more than you can literally chew.
6.) Gargle to Unblock Ears
We have seen above that drinking water can help to pop ears. But another effective method to do this by gargling hot, salted water. This gargling action, along with the hot salted water, will help to equalize the pressure in the ears.
- Prepare your hot water to gargle. Heat a glass of water until just before it boils. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to this and stir to dissolve.
- Wait until the water cools just enough to use without burning the inside of your mouth.
- With your still hot, and now salted, water gargle repeatedly. You can take 1-minute breaks in between gargles.
- Do this till you finish the glass of water.
- If it has not worked on the first try, repeat this after a break of 30 minutes.
7.) Pop Ears with a Hot Shower
Another way to pop ears is to take a hot shower. The steam from the shower may be helpful to make you breathe better. And so, the pressure in your ears may be significantly lessened.
- Prepare yourself a warm bath. Alternatively, take a warm shower.
- Bathe for around 15-20 minutes. Thanks to the steam and the hot water, you may be able to reduce the pressure in your ears and equalize it.
8.) Use Fingers to Pop Ears
If you have noticed, sometimes your ears get blocked when you go swimming, or immerse yourself in water. This can be because of two reasons. One, there is water caught in your ears and it is muffling your hearing. Two, the pressure underwater caused your Eustachian tubes to block. In these cases, you can try using fingers to equalize the pressure.
- Place the pad of one finger against the earhole, but not inside.
- Move this on and off in a plunging motion.
- As a result, this helps to change the pressure in your ear. It can also clear out any water that may be stuck in your ear.
Note: Remember to never stick foreign objects in your ear. Whether it is your finger or anything else. You are liable to cause hearing damage.
9.) Vinegar to Unplug Ears
In some cases, the imbalance of pressure may be caused by a buildup of earwax. Fortunately, there are easy home remedies to unblock your ears from earwax. One such method if using the combination of vinegar and rubbing alcohol.
- Prepare your homemade ear drops. Mix together equal parts of vinegar and rubbing alcohol. Make sure it is 70% isopropyl alcohol. This solution will help to loosen up the thick wax.
- Now, lean your head to the side gently. Apply a few drops of this mixture with a medicine dropper/eye dropper.
- Keep you head in this position for 5 seconds. Now repeat with the other ear.
- Using a little water, you may flush your ears out. Using the dropper, apply a few drops of water in one ear and quickly tilt it over to let it discharge. Repeat on the other ear.
10.) Heat to Pop Ears
In some instances, the ears become blocked as a symptom of a head cold, or the flu. To resolve this, one method is the application of heat to the pressure points. This will loosen up any mucus and also help to relieve pressure from the Eustachian tubes.
- Place a microwavable wheat bag or hot water bottle on your neck or ear.
- You can even place it just behind the ear and around the neck under the ear.
- Combine this remedy with any of the above methods, like chewing or eating hard candy, to pop ears naturally.