Ear Barotrauma: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment, Prevention

Written by Regina Boyle Wheeler

• What Is Ear Barotrauma?
• Ear Barotrauma Symptoms
• Ear Barotrauma Causes and Risk Factors
• Ear Barotrauma Diagnosis
• Ear Barotrauma Treatment
• Ear Barotrauma Prevention
• More

Ear barotrauma, also known as airplane ear, is that clogged-up, sometimes painful feeling you get in your ears when the air pressure changes quickly.

It’s the biggest health problem for people who fly. And it can be especially painful for babies and young kids because their ears aren’t fully developed.

Ear barotrauma also can happen when you ride in an elevator or drive in the mountains. It can happen in the water, too. Scuba divers call it “ear squeeze.” As a diver goes deeper underwater, the pressure in the middle ear (the part behind the eardrum) is “squeezed” by the increasing pressure of the water from outside.

The middle ear is an air-filled space formed by bone and the eardrum. It is connected to the back of the nose by a tunnel called the eustachian tube. Outside air passing through the eustachian tube keeps the pressure in the middle ear equal to that of the outside world. If the eustachian tube malfunctions and there’s a pressure difference across the eardrum, pain or ear squeeze happens.

Common symptoms include:

• Stuffed feeling in your ears
• Muffled hearing because your eardrum can’t vibrate and make sound the way it should
• Ear pain

If you hear a “pop” in your ears, that’s a sign your eustachian tubes are open. If they stay blocked, your middle ear can fill with clear liquid to try to balance the pressure. If your eustachian tubes are closed, it can’t drain. In this case, more serious symptoms can happen:

• Extreme ear pain
• Dizziness called vertigo
• A busted eardrum — fluid or blood leaking from your ear is a sign
• Hearing loss

With a mild case, your symptoms should go away shortly after you get back on land. If they don’t or if your symptoms are serious, see your doctor.

Your ears are especially sensitive to changes in air and water pressure. Still, most people don’t get ear barotrauma. You may be at risk if you have a problem with your eustachian tube where it doesn’t open normally. Reasons that may cause this include:

• Stuffy sinuses
• A cold or other infection
• Allergies
• The shape and size of your ear canal
• Tobacco smoke or other irritants
• Hormonal changes, such as pregnancy

You’re at a higher risk of ear barotrauma if you’re around loud explosions in the military or scuba dive without proper gear.

If you feel pain, the doctor will ask you a series of questions. These questions not only help diagnose the ear squeeze, they may detect other potential injuries.

• Did you have problems clearing the ear?
• Did the symptoms begin during descent or ascent?
• How long did the symptoms last?
• Is there a history of ear or sinus infections?

Regardless of why you feel the pain, your doctor will look inside your ears with a tool called an otoscope. They’ll check to see if there’s fluid behind your eardrum or if it’s damaged. If it is, it may take weeks to heal and you might not hear very well. Usually, the only treatment is time.

If it isn’t better in 2 months, you may need an operation to prevent lasting hearing loss.

Go to a doctor right away if you feel like you’re spinning or falling (vertigo) and your symptoms happen right after flying or diving.

Mild symptoms of ear barotrauma usually last a few minutes. If they last longer, you may need treatment for an infection or another problem. Serious damage, such as a burst eardrum, may take a few months to heal. Sometimes you may need surgery to repair the eardrum or the opening into your middle ear.

For a mild case, you can usually treat your symptoms yourself.

• Try to “pop” your ears.
• Chew gum or hard candy.
• Drink water during flights. Swallowing helps keep the eustachian tubes open.

If yours happens when scuba diving, the treatment begins during the dive. If you have fullness or pain, do not go deeper. If ear clearing techniques don’t work, you must return to the surface. Always complete the decompression stops if necessary when returning to the surface.

If the eardrum ruptures, you might be disoriented or vomit, which may lead to panic. Panic may lead to ascending too rapidly. Your dive partner should carefully observe and assist, if needed, during the ascent, making sure all decompression stops are made. On the surface, no objects or eardrops should be placed into the ear. Keep the ear dry.

• Initial treatment involves oral decongestants and nasal spray to help open the eustachian tube. Antihistamines may also be prescribed if an allergy is a contributing factor.
• Pain medications are helpful, and eardrops to relieve pain may be used if the eardrum is not ruptured.
• A ruptured eardrum will need antibiotics by mouth to prevent infections.
• Hearing exams or audiograms may be needed if the eardrum is ruptured or hearing loss is present.
• If you have facial paralysis, your doctor might prescribe oral steroids.

You can prevent ear barotrauma by keeping your eustachian tubes open. Ways to do that include:

• Medicine. If you have a cold or allergies, take a decongestant about an hour before you fly. A nasal spray or an antihistamine could help, too.
• Earplugs. Special plugs designed for air travel can slow pressure changes and give your ears time to adjust.

If you’re a diver, try these things to protect your ears:

• Equalize your ears before your dive and while going down into the water.
• Go down feet first — it can make equalizing easier.
• Look up — extending your neck can open your tubes.
• Get back to the surface slowly if you feel pain — continuing your dive can injure your ears.
• Don’t dive if you have any sinus or upper respiratory symptoms.

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Ear barotrauma: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

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Ear barotrauma causes discomfort in the ear due to pressure differences between the inside and outside of the eardrum. It may include damage to the ear.

The air pressure in the middle ear is most often the same as the air pressure outside of the body. The eustachian tube is a connection between the middle ear and the back of the nose and upper throat.

Swallowing or yawning opens the eustachian tube and allows air to flow into or out of the middle ear. This helps equalize pressure on either side of the ear drum. If the eustachian tube is blocked, the air pressure in the middle ear is different than the pressure on the outside of the eardrum. This can cause barotrauma.

Many people have barotrauma at some time. The problem often occurs with altitude changes, such as flying, scuba diving, or driving in the mountains. If you have a congested nose from allergies, colds, or an upper respiratory infection, you are more likely to develop barotrauma.

Blockage of the eustachian tube could also be present before birth (congenital). It may also be caused by swelling in the throat.

Common symptoms include:

• Dizziness
• Ear discomfort or pain in one or both ears
• Hearing loss (slight)
• Sensation of fullness or stuffiness in the ears

Other symptoms may develop if the condition is very bad or goes on for a long time, such as:

• Ear pain
• Feeling of pressure in the ears (as if underwater)
• Moderate to severe hearing loss
• Nosebleed

During an exam of the ear, the health care provider may see a slight outward bulge or inward pull of the eardrum. If the condition is severe, there may be blood or bruising behind the eardrum.

Severe barotrauma may cause the eardrum to look similar to an ear infection.

To relieve ear pain or discomfort, you can take steps to open the eustachian tube and relieve the pressure, such as:

• Chew gum
• Inhale, and then gently exhale while holding the nostrils closed and the mouth shut
• Suck on candy
• Yawn

When flying, DO NOT sleep as the plane prepares to land. Repeat the listed steps to open the eustachian tube. For infants and small children, nursing or taking sips of a drink may help.

Scuba divers should go down and come up slowly. Diving while you have allergies or a respiratory infection is dangerous. Barotrauma may be severe in these situations.

If self-care steps do not ease discomfort within a few hours or the problem is severe, you may need to see a provider.

You may need medicine to relieve nasal congestion and allow the eustachian tube to open. These include:

• Decongestants taken by mouth, or by a nose spray
• Steroids taken by mouth, or by a nose spray

You may need antibiotics to prevent or treat an ear infection if barotrauma is severe.

Rarely, surgery may be needed if other treatments do not work to open the tube. In this procedure, a surgical cut is made in the eardrum to allow pressure to become equal and fluid to drain (myringotomy).

If you must change altitude often or you are prone to barotrauma, you may need to have surgery to place tubes in the ear drum. This is not an option for scuba diving.

Barotrauma is usually a benign, self-limited condition that responds to self-care. Hearing loss is almost always temporary.

Complications may include:

• Acute ear infection
• Hearing loss
• Ruptured or perforated eardrum
• Vertigo

Try home care measures first. Contact your provider if the discomfort does not ease after a few hours.

Contact your provider if you have barotrauma and new symptoms develop, especially:

• Drainage or bleeding from the ear
• Fever
• 
  Severe ear pain

You can use nasal decongestants (spray or pill form) before altitude changes. Try to avoid altitude changes while you have an upper respiratory infection or active allergy symptoms.

Talk to your provider about using decongestants if you plan to scuba dive.

Barotitis media; Barotrauma; Ear popping – barotrauma; Pressure-related ear pain; Eustachian tube dysfunction – barotrauma; Barotitis; Ear squeeze

• Ear anatomy

Peak DA. Scuba diving and dysbarism. In: Walls RM, Hockberger RS, Gausche-Hill M, eds. Rosen’s Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2023:chap 131.

Van Hoesen KB, Lang MA. Diving medicine. In: Auerbach PS, Cushing TA, Harris NS, eds. Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine. 7th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2017:chap 71.

Updated by: Josef Shargorodsky, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

How to relieve the feeling of fullness in the ear – treatment in Kyiv

Oct 16 10/16/2019

Fullness in the ear

betteradmin2023-06-30T00:22:46+03:00

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• Why is ear pressure dangerous?
  • Hearing complications
  • Other hazards
• Classification
  • External
  • Internal
• Causes of ear pressure
  • Otitis externa
  • Other causes
• What should I do if my ears feel full?
• What not to do?
• How is the treatment
• Features of treatment in “Betterton”
• Possible complications
• Prevention

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Sometimes a person may feel fullness in the ear – a feeling of excessive pressure in the ear canal or inside. Such sensations are rather unpleasant , and can also signal danger. Therefore, pressure in the ear is an alarming symptom that requires immediate medical attention.

Why is ear pressure dangerous?

If a person has pressure pulsing in the ear, this may be a symptom of dangerous ear diseases, as well as systemic diseases. If left untreated, serious complications occur. For example, hearing loss and other pathological conditions may develop.

Hearing complications

As a rule, a feeling of fullness is associated with various inflammatory diseases of the ears that require treatment. If you do not start it on time, the inflammatory process progresses, affects important structures hearing organs . This, in turn, causes deafness.

Other hazards

Any pathological process that causes excessive pressure in the ear is dangerous. It can spread to nerves, bone tissue, meninges. This poses a serious threat to health and life.

Classification

Distension in the ear can have different localization.

External

Manifested in the outer ear – usually a person feels pressure in the auditory canals. Most often this is due to the fact that the ear canal becomes inflamed.

Internal

Many people suffer from excessive pressure from inside the ear. In this case, the problem lies in various systemic diseases. Also, a symptom can disturb with otitis media, pathologies of the Eustachian tube and respiratory tract, barotrauma and other causes.

Causes of ear pressure

Most often, swelling in the ear appears with otitis externa, but other causes are possible.

Otitis externa

When a furuncle forms in the auditory canal, a person feels pressure and pain in the ear , which are localized in its outer part. Sometimes a boil is visible – it is a small swelling with clearly defined edges. Inside are purulent masses, causing compression of skin and cartilaginous tissue. As the boil matures, a person may experience itching in the ear, fever, redness of the skin of the auricle. If the abscess bursts, purulent discharge flows from the ear.

Other causes

A symptom such as pressure in the ear can have various causes :

What should I do if my ears feel full?

If you feel that something is pressing in your ear, consult a doctor. He will find the cause of the problem and tell you how to normalize the pressure in the ear .

What not to do?

Feeling fullness in the ear , in no case should you self-medicate. If you notice a boil, you do not need to try to remove it yourself or ask loved ones about it. So you can bring the infection and aggravate the situation.

If you feel pressure in your ear and don’t know why, don’t try to diagnose yourself. No need to drip drops into the ears, apply compresses and heat – such amateur performance will only hurt.

How is the treatment

When a person has pressure in the ear, the treatment is selected by the doctor, depending on the cause of the symptom. If it is a boil, it is opened with the help of surgical instruments with strict observance of sterility. In other cases, the cause that caused the feeling of squeezing is treated. This may be medication, physiotherapy, or surgery.

Features of treatment in “Betterton”

In our ENT center they know for sure what to do with a feeling of fullness in the ear. Experienced doctors work here, who will conduct an accurate diagnosis and determine the cause of this symptom. They select treatment individually, taking into account the needs and characteristics of the patient.

Possible complications

Strong pressure in the ear is not only unpleasant but also dangerous. With running boils, abscesses and phlegmon are possible. The inflammatory process that causes this symptom can affect neighboring important organs and structures, endangering human life.

Prophylaxis

To keep the discomfort of pressure in your ear from bothering you, follow these simple guidelines:

If an unpleasant symptom still appears, make an appointment at our ENT center. We will help you with the treatment of diseases of the ear, as well as the nose and throat!

Do not try to treat yourself! Contact otolaryngologists at Betterton Hearing Centers in the capital

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Why earphones hurt and what to do about it

Headphones are a technology that has tightly entered our lives. It was once impossible to imagine the transmission of sound directly to the ear, but now it is our daily routine. However, many people do not attach importance to the correct choice of headphones, because they do not realize how much they can affect hearing. In this article, we will analyze the possible negative consequences of improper selection or use of headphones and try to answer the question: why can ears hurt from headphones?

What to do if your ears hurt from headphones

Like many other advances in technology, headphones are a complex device that affects a person intensely. The task of the user is to responsibly approach the choice of headphones in order not only to get comfortable wearing and high-quality sounds, but also not to spoil their own hearing.

What to do if the ears hurt from the headphones?

Do you take off large-sized headphones (ear pads and headband) and feel pain in your ears? It’s not the sound, but the fact that the headphones are incorrectly adjusted or simply do not fit you.

How to prevent pain in the ears from large headphones:

• The ear pads should not press on the ear, and the headband should sit comfortably on the head.

• The ear pads should tightly but gently cover the entire auricles, without squeezing or rubbing anywhere.

• The design should not be too heavy.

If your ears already hurt from headphones, a light massage of the auricles will help you:

– pinch the earlobes between the thumb and forefinger and gently pull down, repeat 30-40 times;

– put open palms behind the ears and gently press the auricles to the head, as if folding the ear, repeat 20-30 times;

– put the folded index, middle and ring fingers behind the upper part of the auricle and gently bend them down, repeat 20-30 times;

– with your thumb and forefinger, grab the tragus (protruding cartilage covering the opening of the ear canal) and rotate it 180 degrees, repeat 15-20 times;

– cover the ears with open palms and perform 30-40 light patting movements.

Perform all actions carefully and gently. Massage will help disperse stagnant blood and relieve pain in the auricles.

Important : if the pain from the headphones in the ears does not go away for more than three hours, consult a doctor, it may be an injury.

What to do if the ears after the headphones hurt not from the outside, but from the inside?

Pain is generally a bad signal, and if you feel pain, then do not waste time looking for an answer on the Internet – consult a doctor. The count can go up to hours if the nerve or hair cells of the inner ear are affected.

Causes of ear pain after headphones:

• too high volume. Hearing experts recommend not listening to music with headphones above 60% volume;

• poor sound quality. Some headphones emit, in addition to the main sound, also side ones, such as background noises that are barely accessible or not at all invisible to a person. Such sound can have a severe effect on the hair cells of the inner ear, and with prolonged contact, your hearing may be impaired;

• lack of noise reduction. Good headphones should either cover the entire ear with their ear cups or have digital noise cancellation. What is it for? When we turn up the music in our headphones so that we don’t hear the outside world, we don’t actually stop hearing sounds from outside. Just on top of what we usually hear, very loud music is also added. Bottom line: ear pain after headphones

How to restore hearing after headphones

If you have spent a lot of time with your headphones on and after taking them off, you feel that:

• after the headphones laid the ear. What to do? Give your ear a little rest, and then carefully pinch your nose with your thumb and forefinger, inhale and try to exhale with tension through the pinched nose. Do not be zealous, you should not get hurt. If congestion persists, repeat after 10 minutes. If this method does not help you during the day, consult a doctor;

• after the headphones, the ears hurt and throb from the inside, let the ears rest in silence. After using headphones or attending concerts and other noisy situations, such sensations often occur. If pain and throbbing have not gone away after 6 hours, see a doctor;

• after the headphones, you stopped making out speech and understand that the full volume of the TV is not enough for you. These are warning signs of serious acoustic trauma. Seek immediate medical attention.

How to improve hearing after headphones

Unfortunately, hearing cannot be improved. The auditory system rests on nerve cells – hair. Too loud sound, prolonged wearing or faulty headphones kill hair cells, and they are not known to be restored.

How to listen to music with headphones without harming yourself:

• The volume is not higher than 60%;

• using headphones no longer than 1.