• Question: Why do peoples ear pop when there up high such as in a plane?

    Asked by beth.nicholls to Angela, Claire, Ian, Robert, Sarah on 12 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Angela Stokes

      Angela Stokes answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Hi _bethnicholls_
      Another great question from you!!

      As you go up in an airplane and the air pressure decreases and the air trapped in your inner ear will cause your ear drums to push outwards. This causes the strange feeling you get just before your ears pop and also sometimes causes a bit of hearing loss. Your body is very good at equalising this pressure and it does this by allowing a bit of the trapped air to enter your Eustachian tubes leading from your ear to your throat – when the tubes open, this is the ‘pop’ you hear/feel. If you have a blocked Eustachian tube (like when you have a heavy cold) the air can’t escape because of the blockage and this can cause severe pain in your ears and in some severe cases the pressure can burst your eardrums – this will really hurt!

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