You equalize your ears by opening the Eustachian tubes, two narrow passages that connect your middle ears to the back of your throat. These tubes normally open briefly when you swallow or yawn, letting a small puff of air in so the pressure on both sides of your eardrum stays balanced. When outside pressure changes faster than your tubes can keep up, like during a flight descent or a dive underwater, you feel that familiar stuffiness or pain. Equalization techniques force the tubes open so air can flow through and relieve the pressure difference.
Why Your Ears Need Equalizing
Your eardrum is a thin membrane separating the air-filled middle ear from the outside world. It vibrates freely only when pressure is equal on both sides. When you descend in water or altitude drops during a flight, the outside pressure increases and pushes your eardrum inward. That inward flex is what creates the sensation of fullness, muffled hearing, and eventually sharp pain if you don’t equalize.
The Eustachian tubes are the body’s built-in equalization system. They open passively dozens of times a day, every time you swallow or yawn, to keep middle ear pressure matched to your environment. Problems start when the pressure changes too quickly for passive opening to handle, or when congestion, allergies, or infection swells the tube lining and narrows the passage.
The Simplest Techniques
Most people can equalize with one of three basic methods. The right choice depends on whether you’re on an airplane, underwater, or just dealing with a stuffy feeling at home.
Swallowing and yawning. The easiest approach. Swallowing activates the muscles that pull the Eustachian tubes open. Chewing gum, sucking on hard candy, or sipping water during takeoff and landing keeps you swallowing frequently. Yawning works even better because it engages more of the muscles around the tubes. If a real yawn won’t come, opening your mouth wide and mimicking the motion often does the trick.
Valsalva maneuver (pinch and blow). Pinch your nostrils closed and gently blow through your nose with your mouth shut. The air pressure in your throat has nowhere to go except up through the Eustachian tubes, pushing them open. This is the most widely taught technique and works well for flying and casual diving. The key word is “gently.” Blowing too hard doesn’t equalize faster; it just raises pressure inside your skull. At extreme force levels, a hard Valsalva can temporarily reduce blood flow to the brain, cause fainting, or in rare cases with pre-existing vulnerabilities, contribute to tissue damage. Keep it soft, steady, and brief.
Toynbee maneuver (pinch and swallow). Pinch your nostrils closed and swallow at the same time. Swallowing pulls the Eustachian tubes open while the tongue movement, with your nose sealed, compresses air against the tube openings. Many people find this more comfortable than the Valsalva, and it works particularly well during ascent (when pressure is decreasing) because it can help vent excess air out of the middle ear.
Advanced Techniques for Divers
The Valsalva maneuver has a limitation underwater. It relies on your chest and diaphragm muscles to generate pressure, and as you descend deeper, the surrounding water pressure compresses your chest, making it harder to push enough air. Freedivers and experienced scuba divers often switch to the Frenzel maneuver instead.
The Frenzel technique works by closing off the vocal folds at the back of the throat (the same action you’d use to grunt or hold your breath mid-swallow). With the airway sealed at the throat rather than the lungs, you use your tongue as a piston, pushing it upward against the roof of your mouth while pinching your nose. This forces air from the throat into the nasal cavity and through the Eustachian tubes. Because it doesn’t depend on lung volume or chest compression, it remains effective at depths where the Valsalva fails. Learning it takes practice, but it’s the standard equalization method for deep freediving.
Timing Matters More Than Technique
The single most important equalization habit is starting early and repeating often. The Divers Alert Network recommends equalizing before your head even goes underwater, and then continuously during descent rather than waiting until you feel pressure. The same principle applies to flying: begin swallowing or using the Valsalva during the initial descent announcement, not after your ears already hurt.
Once the Eustachian tubes get locked shut by a large pressure difference, no technique works well. The surrounding tissue gets pushed together like a valve, and the harder you blow, the tighter the seal becomes. If you feel increasing pain, the best move is to stop descending (or, on a dive, ascend slightly) until you can equalize, then continue. Forcing through pain is how barotrauma happens.
Equalizing During Flights
Airplane cabins change pressure most during the last 20 to 30 minutes of descent. That’s the window where ear pain peaks. Chewing gum or sipping water throughout this period keeps the tubes cycling open. For flights where you know your ears tend to struggle, a few additional strategies help.
Pressure-regulating earplugs (sold under brand names like EarPlanes) act as baffles that slow the rate of pressure change reaching your eardrum, giving your tubes more time to adjust. They’re inexpensive and available at most pharmacies. A decongestant nasal spray used about 30 minutes before descent can also shrink the tissue around the Eustachian tube openings, making them easier to open. Antihistamines can serve a similar role if allergies are contributing to swelling.
One important note: stay awake during takeoff and landing. You swallow far less often while sleeping, so pressure builds without your body’s natural correction. If you nap through a descent and wake up with painful ears, you’re starting from a bigger pressure gap that’s harder to resolve.
When Congestion Makes It Harder
A cold, sinus infection, or allergy flare-up swells the lining of the Eustachian tubes, narrowing or blocking them entirely. This condition, called Eustachian tube dysfunction, makes equalization difficult or impossible even with proper technique. Mild cases respond to simple measures: saline nasal spray to clear mucus, chewing gum, yawning, or using a balloon-type device (like an Otovent) that gently inflates through the nose to push the tubes open.
Over-the-counter antihistamines and steroid nasal sprays can reduce the underlying swelling. Oral decongestants are sometimes recommended, but they can occasionally make Eustachian tube dysfunction worse in some people, so they’re worth discussing with a pharmacist or doctor before relying on them for a flight or dive. If you have an active ear infection, delaying a dive or flight when possible is the safest choice, since the swollen tissues won’t equalize reliably and the pressure difference risks rupturing the eardrum.
Helping Children Equalize
Young children can’t perform a Valsalva maneuver on command, and infants obviously can’t follow instructions at all. The main strategy is encouraging frequent swallowing. A bottle or pacifier during takeoff and landing keeps an infant swallowing steadily. Older toddlers can sip water or juice through a straw. Signs that a child is struggling include fussiness, crying, or tugging at the ears.
Children old enough to follow directions (roughly age five and up) can learn a simplified version of the Valsalva: breathe in slowly, gently pinch the tip of the nose, and exhale through the nose with the mouth closed. Practicing before the flight makes it easier when the moment comes. Pain relievers dosed by weight can help if discomfort persists after landing, but the goal is to prevent the pressure buildup in the first place by keeping those swallowing muscles active.
What Happens If You Can’t Equalize
Failed equalization leads to ear barotrauma, which ranges from mild discomfort to serious injury. At the mild end, you’ll feel stuffiness and muffled hearing that resolves within hours as the tubes slowly reopen. More significant barotrauma causes sharp ear pain, dizziness, nausea, and temporary hearing loss. In severe cases, the eardrum can rupture, which is immediately painful but usually heals on its own over weeks.
Persistent inability to equalize, especially if it happens repeatedly or outside of obvious triggers like flying, may point to chronic Eustachian tube dysfunction. For cases that don’t respond to medication or home techniques, a minor procedure called myringotomy places a tiny hole in the eardrum to allow instant pressure equalization. This is typically reserved for people with ongoing, significant symptoms rather than the occasional flight discomfort most people experience.