The fastest way to pop your ears is to pinch your nose shut, close your mouth, and gently blow as if trying to exhale through your nostrils. This is called the Valsalva maneuver, and it works by pushing a small burst of air up the narrow tubes that connect your throat to your middle ears. If that doesn’t work on the first try, swallowing, yawning, or chewing gum can also do the trick. Below is a closer look at why your ears feel plugged in the first place and the safest ways to relieve that pressure.
Why Your Ears Feel Plugged
A thin tube called the Eustachian tube runs from the back of your throat to the air-filled space behind each eardrum. Its main job is to keep the air pressure on both sides of the eardrum equal. When pressure is balanced, the eardrum vibrates freely and you hear normally. When it’s not, the eardrum gets pushed inward or outward, creating that familiar stuffed, muffled feeling.
The imbalance happens because gases naturally diffuse across tiny blood vessels inside the middle ear, creating a slight vacuum compared to the air around you. Normally the Eustachian tube opens briefly every time you swallow or yawn, letting a puff of outside air in to equalize things. But rapid altitude changes (takeoff, landing, driving through mountains, diving underwater) shift the outside pressure faster than the tube can keep up. A cold, sinus infection, or allergies can also swell the tube’s lining and hold it shut, trapping low-pressure air behind the eardrum.
Five Techniques That Work
Valsalva Maneuver
Pinch your nostrils closed, keep your mouth shut, and blow gently through your nose. The pressure in your throat rises just enough to force air up both Eustachian tubes. You should feel a soft pop or click. The key word here is “gently.” Blowing too hard won’t open the tubes any faster and can actually cause problems (more on that below).
Toynbee Maneuver
Pinch your nostrils closed and swallow. Swallowing physically pulls the Eustachian tubes open while the motion of your tongue, combined with the sealed nose, compresses air toward the tube openings. This method is especially useful during airplane descent because you can repeat it easily by sipping water with your nose pinched.
Frenzel Maneuver
Close your nostrils, close the back of your throat as if you’re about to lift something heavy, then make a hard “K” sound. This drives the back of your tongue upward like a piston, compressing air against the Eustachian tube openings without putting strain on your chest or abdomen. Scuba divers prefer this technique because it works at any depth and requires very little force.
Swallowing, Yawning, and Chewing
If you’d rather skip the nose-pinching, simple swallowing and yawning activate the same small muscles that tug the Eustachian tubes open. Chewing gum or sucking on hard candy keeps those muscles working continuously, which is why flight attendants hand out candy before descent. Drinking water works just as well because each sip triggers a swallow.
Jaw Movement
Slowly jutting your lower jaw forward and moving it side to side can stretch the tissues around the Eustachian tube openings enough to let air pass through. This is a good backup if the other methods haven’t worked or if you can’t pinch your nose easily.
How to Help Babies and Young Children
Infants and toddlers can’t follow instructions to pinch their noses, so the goal is to get them swallowing as much as possible during altitude changes. Breastfeeding, giving a bottle, or offering a pacifier during takeoff and landing all encourage frequent swallowing that opens the Eustachian tubes naturally. Keep the baby sitting upright during bottle feeding so fluid doesn’t pool near the tube openings.
For children over three, chewing gum or sucking on hard candy works well. Older kids and teens can try a gentle version of the Valsalva: breathe in slowly, lightly pinch the tip of the nose, close the mouth, and exhale softly through the nose. One important tip for all ages: try to keep kids awake during takeoff and landing. During sleep we swallow far less often, which makes it harder for pressure to equalize.
Don’t Blow Too Hard
The eardrum is remarkably thin, and it can only withstand a limited pressure difference before it tears. In clinical terms, a pressure difference of roughly 5 psi across the eardrum can cause a rupture, and at about 14 psi nearly every eardrum will give way. You’re unlikely to generate that kind of force from a normal Valsalva, but aggressive, repeated blowing with your nose pinched does raise the risk, especially if one ear is more blocked than the other.
A few rules to keep it safe: use short, gentle puffs rather than one sustained, straining push. If your ears don’t pop after two or three tries, stop and try swallowing or yawning instead. Never attempt the Valsalva while you have a severe cold or active ear infection, because swollen tissues can redirect that pressure unevenly. If you feel sharp pain or sudden hearing loss during any technique, that’s a sign to stop immediately.
Nasal Sprays and Medications
When congestion is keeping your Eustachian tubes swollen shut, a decongestant nasal spray containing oxymetazoline can shrink the tissue lining the tube and make equalization easier. For airplane travel, spraying about 30 minutes before descent gives the medication time to take effect. Oral decongestants containing pseudoephedrine work similarly but take longer to kick in, so take them an hour or so before your flight.
Antihistamines are sometimes recommended for the same purpose, but the evidence behind them is weak. A large Cochrane review of antihistamines and decongestants for fluid in the middle ear found no benefit from antihistamines and actually noted some harm from their use. If your plugged ears are related to a cold rather than allergies, antihistamines are unlikely to help and may cause drowsiness without relieving the pressure.
Balloon Autoinflation Devices
If you or your child deals with chronic ear pressure or fluid buildup, your doctor may suggest a balloon autoinflation device (Otovent is the most common brand). You place a small balloon nozzle against one nostril, hold the other nostril closed, and inflate the balloon using only your nose. Then you let the balloon deflate while swallowing, which channels the air up through the Eustachian tube.
A Cochrane systematic review found that autoinflation devices improved middle ear pressure readings when used consistently over one month or longer. The typical routine is two to three times per day for several weeks. Compliance can be a challenge, particularly with younger children. One trial reported 98% of participants stuck with the routine, while another found that fewer than half managed high compliance. No significant side effects were reported across the studies reviewed.
Do Pressure-Regulating Earplugs Work?
Several brands of earplugs claim to slow the rate of pressure change reaching your eardrum during flights. In practice, the evidence is not encouraging. A controlled study tested pressure-equalizing earplugs (JetEars) in 27 volunteers who were prone to ear barotrauma. Each person wore an active earplug in one ear and a placebo in the other during a simulated cabin pressure change. 75% still experienced ear pain on descent, and there was no measurable difference in middle ear pressure between the active and placebo earplugs. The active earplugs actually scored worse on otoscopic examination after the test. Most volunteers did enjoy the noise reduction, so these earplugs may make a flight quieter, but they shouldn’t be counted on to prevent ear pressure problems.
When Ears Won’t Pop for Weeks
Occasional plugged ears from a flight or a head cold typically resolve on their own within a day or two. If the fullness, muffled hearing, or discomfort lasts longer than two weeks, that may indicate Eustachian tube dysfunction, a condition where the tubes stay chronically swollen or fail to open properly. A doctor can check your eardrums, nasal passages, and the back of your throat, and may run a tympanometry test (which measures how well the eardrum moves in response to pressure changes) or a hearing test to see whether fluid has accumulated behind the eardrum. Treatment depends on the underlying cause but often starts with nasal steroid sprays to reduce swelling around the tube openings.