Popping Ears by Blowing Nose Safe?

[MonstercatMusic]

So today I thought I'd pop my ears as my right ear felt dull in hearing.

I think it's perforated as when I've previously popped it made a sound like air is passing through every time. This time I had been using ear drops.

The combination of air moving through and liquid made a loud squelch as well as the usual crackle.

I'm just wondering what the equivalent db level would be to that as I'm physically moving the ear drum (or vibrating the perforation).

Won't be doing that again, was louder than my ears usually pop. Just concerned that 0.5 seconds of that was sufficient to screw with my hearing more.

 

[Mellow7]

The Valsalva maneuver is generally considered unsafe in these circles. There are more gentle ways to achieve the same result such as the Toynbee maneuver, followed by swallowing a few times to help equalize pressure. I myself have quite a lot of issues with muffled and full ears as well and I often automatically attribute changes in T to badly functioning tubes, but I must say that I have recently abstained from doing these maneuvers as they have caused me ear barotrauma twice in the last two months. I have read of experiences of others that overdoing it to this point may indeed exacerbate T.

My advice is to open the tubes in natural ways through chewing, yawning (not extensively of course) or swallowing. Some divers can also make their ears pop by flexing jaw muscles, which may be considered as well (I do this too).

 

[Bill Bauer]

I am living through a spike, and I think it was caused by me blowing my nose. Be careful when blowing your nose! You want to be as gentle as you can...

 

[Michellejean]

@MonstercatMusic please be careful with valsalva. If you heard a squelch it is a sign from my own anecdotal experience you have mucous or fluid in your Eustachian tube. Don't worry too much about the squelch just listen to the posts above. Get some gum and chew it a lot and get a water bottle and drink often. This will exercise your tensor Tympani Valentini or whatever that muscle is that opens the tubes. Good luck my friend

 

[MorphineDream]

I don't really know the names but why not just yawn? It's gentle and gets the job done.