Your Ears Just Weren`t Made For Airplane Travel

April 20, 1986|By Phil Vettel.

Q--Every time I travel by airplane (or even a long elevator ride) my ears stop up. Usually it clears up quickly, but sometimes it takes hours. Why? And what can I do to clear my ears faster? And why do babies seem to cry whenever they`re on airplanes?

A--Babies cry because they`re uncomfortable. And on airplanes, often babies are uncomfortable for the same reason you are--the change in air pressure is hurting their ears.

Here`s how it works, according to Dr. David Fairbanks, author of the American Academy of Otolaryngology`s pamphlet ``Ears, Altitude and Airplane Travel`` (yours for the asking plus a self-addressed, stamped envelope to 1101 Vermont Ave., N.W., Suite 302, Washington, D.C. 20005):

Your eardrum sits between the ear canal, the passage leading to the outside air, and the middle ear, an air pocket between the eardrum and inner ear. For optimum comfort, the air pressure on either side of the eardrum must be equal. To accomplish this, there is the Eustachian tube, a tiny tube about the size of a goose quill, which supplies air from the nasal cavity to the middle ear. If you sat very quietly and swallowed regularly, you`d observe that on every third swallow or so you`d hear a little popping sound in the ears. That`s the Eustachian tube in action, supplying a little more air to the middle ear. (Air is supplied constantly because the membranes of the middle ear constantly absorb air.)

All well and good. But humans were not originally designed to soar to great heights or plunge to great depths, and when we do, the Eustachian tube can`t always keep up with the rapid pressure changes.

But you ask, aren`t airplane cabins pressurized? To which Fairbanks replies yes, but not all perfectly. Ear discomfort is so common that some flight attendants have their eardrums lanced (i.e., pierced) to solve the problem permanently. Fairbanks says he gets his warning sign during the ascent. When the plane takes off, he says, he listens for a crackling noise in his ears. ``The higher the altitude, the lower the air pressure,`` he explains, ``so there`s less air pressure outside the ear than exists in the middle ear, and to compensate, the Eustachian tube briefly reverses itself to let air out of the middle ear. That`s the crackling noise you hear. When that happens you know the plane doesn`t have good pressure.``

Which means that you`re going to have trouble during the descent, when your now-equalized ears confront a sudden increase in outside air pressure. You`d assume the Eustachian tube would operate more often to compensate, and it does, but it can`t keep up. You must help.

It`s easy. To trigger the muscle activating the Eustachian tube, simply swallow or yawn. Chewing gum increases swallowing frequency, as does sucking on mints or hard candy. Forcing yawns works very well, even if it does look a bit rude. But what the heck. If you get a splitting pain in your ears, you`re not going to be very polite anyway.

And that`s what could happen. When the outside ear pressure is greater than the middle ear pressure--when the middle ear needs air, in other words

--the ears feel blocked. It`s as though someone stuffed cotton in them;

it`s difficult to hear. Depending on the outside pressure, that can be as bad as it gets; the blocked feeling remains until you land, or for several hours thereafter. But sometimes it`s worse. As the air pressure builds, the middle ear needs more and more air. Meantime, it`s absorbing what little air was there initially. ``You can get a real intense vacuum that can be very painful,`` Fairbanks says. ``Unfortunately, the vacuum can even work to suck closed the Eustachian tube, making it even harder for air to get inside.``

People with colds or allergies are almost certain to have problems on airplanes, because the swollen nasal membranes can block the Eustacian tube.

The problem is worse for babies and small children, whose Eustachian tubes are much narrower, and thus easier to block. And of course, babies and children don`t know how to relieve their discomfort, which prolongs the suffering. Parents inadvertantly contribute to the problem by encouraging the kids to sleep; when you sleep, you swallow less often and the Eustachian tube functions less often.

You can help children by encouraging them to swallow, which activates the muscle that opens the Eustachian tubes. Give youngsters a piece of hard candy, a mint or chewing gum. Give babies a bottle or pacifier. Of course, when the kid is screaming in pain it could be tough to get him to take a bottle; so give him a bottle just before the plane`s descent.

``It`s much easier to fight this before it starts,`` Fairbanks says.