Monkified

My wife, despite my efforts to show her various methods, is unable to equalize ear pressure when descending on flights. Depending on the rapidity of the descent the ear pressure can become extremely painful for her, at times to the point of tears. I'm looking for some products to address this and found a couple that look promising; EarPlanes (assists in gradual depressurization) and Eustachi (adds air to assist in equalizing).

Does anyone have experience with these products? Or are there other products I should consider?

Thanks in advance!

alchemista

I have used EarPlanes, they seem to at least partly work as I can feel more equalizing when I am congested - follow instructions on when to insert (basically soon before descent starts).

After also suffering killer pain, I do a mix of all these depending on my level of congestion:
Sudafed 1 hour before flight (4 or 12-hour strength)
Nasal spray 30 mins before flight (have to watch you aren't doing these too often though as it can worsen sinus)
Earplanes before descent
Have a bottle of water and take small sips to swallow as descent (swallow helps equalize)
Do the hold-nose and blow method too
If have some sinus, actually blow nose as well

Loren Pechtel

My wife is like yours--the standard techniques do nothing for her. Sometimes they pop, sometimes they don't. I've never seen her in tears but she's often very unhappy and will categorically reject routings that cause more stops than the minimum for the route.

She tried EarPlanes and unlike some others on here all they did was bother her.

Monkified

Thanks for the input. Sounds like a trial and error approach to see what works best for her, if anything. I'll keep you updated on what I find out as we'll be travelling some over the next couple months.

SkyForce6

Earplanes are borderline a scam product since they do not work any better then regular filtered earplugs. They do very little to ease ear pain/ ear barotrauma during landing. For me they do not work at all, I actually get better results wearing regular in ear earphones playing heavy electronica music in my ears during landing. I found pounding from high BPM and bass heavy music in my ears during landing helps a lot against ear pain. It works even better to suck on hard sour caramels where you really push the caramel rather hard between your tongue and palate whilst listening to fast and heavy electronica music using in ear earphones, for me caramels work better then chewing gum. I usually go trough 3-4 caramels during a landing!The downside is that your palate can get a little sore doing this. It is more common for small sized women and children to have bigger problems with their Eustachian tubes during landing due to having narrow canals down to their nose. If you are one of those adults that suffer this condition then I recommend 60 Mg Sudafed 1 hour before landing combine it with using regular filtered earplugs that you put rather deep into your ears and your pain will be a lot less. Another remedy in case you can not get Sudafed in your country without subscription is Afrin nasal Spray that you use 30-45 minutes before landing and also combine that with filtered ear plugs. Another is medicine containing Phenylephrine such as Dayquil it is not as strong as Sudafed but can be bought anywhere in the world and have some effect.

TGarza

I use an OTC ear drop which contain hydrogen peroxide and cheap ear plugs or a cotton ball. I follow the same routine whenever I feel ill in the winter time.

ZCT

As an audiologist, I can tell you that most issues of ear pain such as this relate to the eustachian tube not properly opening equalizing the air pressure in the middle ear. This puts some stress on the ear drum, as the air pressure in the middle ear is not the same as the air pressure in the outside world.

You could try Sudafed (the good kind you have to ask for). You could try some form of allergy medicine.

You may want to talk with an ear nose and throat doctor to see if he or she can pinpoint the specific cause, which would lead to a more specific treatment plan that would help her. As there are a number of possible reasons for this happening, and without a consult you are just kind of guessing and hoping.

Monkified

Appreciate the input. Makes sense to find out the root cause rather than focus on mitigating the symptoms. Thanks!