Tere is not that much you can do besides what you said. The only other thing I know of is yawning. On some airports (cities enclosed by mountains) the pilot has to come in very steep. Since the plane is not fully pressurized to ground level, the pressure will start building up very quickly.

I am not sure if earplugs would help, but I guess not. You have to make sure that the pressure on the other side of the eardrums is the same as outside by yawning frequently (the more the better).

Andre

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Chewing a gum and yawning are good ways of making your ear be relieved from the pressure of that location. I haven't tried closing my nose then blowing, that should be really painful for it will force air out of your ear. What I use to do is to plug a headphone so that I would hum the music that I'm listening.

Maybe if you crank up the music you can make your eardrums vibrate and achieve some kind of pressure equalization

Andre

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Yeah, I think that's the idea why I don't have ear pressure problem. My eardrums are always vibrating with the help of the headphone. I don't usually make the volume louder but just the soft volume for the listening pleasure while travelling.

When my family where flying years ago my brother had a lot of trouble with altitude ear pressure. He was in so much pain. The air hostess gave him a tissue with eucalyptus oil on it and told him to breath it in it made a great difference. It's worth a try.

Seriously? That worked?  I'm guessing I could find eucalyptus oil at any pharmacy?  I'll definitely give it a shot.  Forced pressure makes for a painful pop, but when nothing else works you'll eventually do anything.  Thanks for this tip, maybe it'll help save my ears.

I have never heard that before. Amazing. I used to do this when I had trouble breathing due to a cold.

Wonderful tip. Thanks Tay!

I will have to try the eucalyptus. I always have problems with my ears when I fly. And chewing gum just did not work for me. Thank you for the information.

I usually don't have any trouble with my ears, but I took one flight across the US years ago, that was sheer hell. I had a cold, I got a piercing pain in my ears, and I understood for the first time why babies can scream for hours on a plane. I was in my thirties, and I wanted to scream, too.

I never heard of using eucalyptus, and I certainly wish I'd had some then. I think I'll pick up a small bottle before I fly back to the US in the fall.

Hi Tay, thanks for the tip!

I do have trouble with my ears. It's usually not that bad, but the problems start when I have to take another flight shortly after because I have to change planes or if I am on a trip where I'm on a plane every couple of days. Since my ears are still hurting it only gets worse with every flight.

So, I will definitely give this a try. It would make things much easier.

I will have to give this a  try also because chewing gum does nothing for me. I hate the pressure in my ears. Drives me nuts.