Marathon Man ~ I'm fairly sure that Quies ear Planes come in children's sizes.

Your poor baby! What a trooper!

(my ear problems stem from dozens of infections in my infancy ~ in those days they punctured the drums rather than give penicillin ~ twits!)

I have come late to this thread and have not read every post ... so I'll take a chance that this has not been mentioned:

SMELLING SALTS!

An old friend who was a Qantas FA gave me some one time and told me that they kept a stock aboard all Qantas craft.

Not so many drugs that way.

Yes you can get Earplanes ear plugs in any U.S. drugstore, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. If I remember correctly they cost around $7. They also sell them at most airports in the sundries shops.

Odd coincidence with the OP, the most recent time I had sinus pain during descent was on a flight to Helsinki on Finnair. it felt like my sinuses were going to explode so i just pinched my nostrils and closed my mouth and blew hard, it worked every few minutes.

This is called the Valsalva Maneuver. It is taught to all scuba divers and military pilots (probably should be taught to civilian pilots as well, but I'm not sure it's formally part of any FAA requirement, so some programs may not bother.)

This is the surest way to equalize ear pressure during descent - just be careful not to blow too hard. If your Eustachian tubes are clogged, try tilting your head from side to side as you blow - this can sometimes open them enough to pressurize. Be gentle, though! If you over-pressurize your inner ear you may experience dizziness and/or pain. In extreme cases, you could even rupture your eardrum.

Remember - pinch your nose, close your mouth, and blow gently. You're just trying to get enough air in your ear to equalize the pressure, not trying to blow out your eardrums.

Edit: I guess I should point out that this works during descent but not, for obvious reasons, during ascent.

one word:

Benadryl

Works for flights, works for scuba.
take it 45 mins or so before you go down.

This is caused by pressure. The pressurization of the cabin is less than the pressurization as you descend. This is why when you drink part of a bottle of water at 36k feet, the bottle contracts as you near the ground. The pressure inside is less than the pressure around it.

The same thing basically happens to your sinuses as you descend. Some people are more prone to this than others. If you have this issue when you're healthy, I HIGHLY suggest that you don't fly with a head cold.

i learned it during flight training, it was taught as part of the cirriculum at ERAU.

so will the airlines let me change a ticket if I am trying to come HOME from a trip where I got a cold (or got one on a stupid dirty plane) and then maybe I can claim I am sick so I cant fly? I think we have little choice here.

indeed, there is a long way to go still in terms of what the best care is for such infections. I still have issues with my ears too. oh well.

I have dealt with this for YEARS. I've described it to people as a screwdriver being slowly pressed into my eyebrow until it goes thru my skull. It seems to have built up in frequency and intensity with time. It used to be a pain that I could turn, look out the window and just sort of "grin and bear it" until landing. Often it would make my eyes tear up and sometimes my nose run, but no lasting effects. The unpredictability of it always kept me guessing, but I always felt like I could deal with it.

The last time was descending into Brussels on the way to Zurich. I think I was in and out of conciousnous. It was the absolute worst pain I could ever imagine. I thought my eyes and teeth were going to get pushed out. My head hurt for days after, making enjoyment of a Swiss vacation difficult.

I have always loved to fly, but I just returned home from a trip to the west coast (from Michigan) and chose to drive because of my fear of having this intense pain again. (3 long days each way and fuel, food, and hotel bills that would've put me in first class) After bringing it up with my doctor, an appointment was made for an MRI, which I just had a couple hours ago. I'm hoping there is some solution for this, but I have a head cold at the moment so I don't know what the MRI will actually show. I'm keeping my fingers crossed....

(I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. This is not medical advice)

1) Sustained relase (12 or 24 hour) ones are a lifesaver, especially for longer flights, although in theory they have a higher risk of causing problems like blood clots.

2) For some people, phenylephrine (the newly popular, not-makable-into-meth decongestant) works well. For many others, it doesn't. Try it, and if it doesn't work, you can still get pseudoephedrine ("Sudafed" being the brand name) with showing ID, etc.

3) If you find decongestants drying, drinking a lot of water (a good idea when flying anyway) will help. So will taking an expectorant tablet or syrup with the decongestant. Although vastly overpriced compared to generics, two good ways to get both are "Sudafed Non-drying Sinus" (if they still make it- I haven't seen it since pseudoephedrine went behind-the-counter) and "Mucinex-D" (they definitely still make this, and it's a nice 12-hour sustained release.)

It's not literally addictive, but it's sort of like that. Decongestant nasal springs - both oxymetazoline ("Afrin" and generics) and phenylephrine nasal sprays cause "rebound" congestion when they wear off. It's an especially big problem if you use them super-regularly, but they have some risk of it even with a single-use.

Generics work equally well, IME and based on everything I've read there's no reason to expect a name-brand drug that's as old as Afrin to be any different from the generics. Decongestant nasal sprays definitely work quite differently from oral decongestants, and kick in much quicker.

Tilting your head back or lying down should help distribute the drug. As for spraying each nostril twice, what dosage people needs varies a lot depending on how congested they are - many people will be fine with one. For severe congestion, it is often helpful to spray once, and then wait a few minutes for the first spray to kick in before taking a second, as you'll have more airflow and better penetration that way.

As an aside, folks with frequent congestion should talk to their doctors about topical corticosteroid nasal sprays (there are tons of these, and several advertise heavily - ie Flonase and Nasonex); these are advertised for allergies but work as general local anti-inflamatories; the down side is you have to use them regularly, and they kick in over the course of days rather than minutes. I think some of them may be OTC in some countries outside the US.

UPDATE: MRI showed a deviated septum nearly blocking the left side. It also showed all my sinus cavities in a state of chronic sinusitus-- Thickened walls and full of junk. I had surgery on Monday and hopefully this will cure it.

Never encountered this problem myself during descent or landing.

I have not read through all the posts, so hopefully this has not been mentioned, but I suffer terribly from sinus problems, specifically sinus headaches when traveling, and I have found that taking two Advil Cold & Sinus works great for me. Otherwise, I get a horrible headache.

My two cents.