Ask the Doctor My 27-year-old wife has problems with her ears. Six years ago, her ears clogged due to air-pressure changes while driving over hills. No matter what she tried (i.e. yawning, opening and closing her mouth, etc.) she was unable to pop her ears. The next day, she began having severe headaches. Over the next few months, she saw an ENT specialist, a neurologist, an allergy specialist, a TMJ specialist and many other kinds of doctors and endured a range of tests, remedies and medications. No one was ever able to tell her what was wrong. Now, she still feels pressure in her ears and in her head and she experiences chronic headaches that vary in intensity. Her ears pop with changes in pressure. She does not experience any hearing loss, dizziness or normal earaches - just constant pressure in her ears and head along with almost constant headache pain. Do you have any idea what might be happening?
While I can't explain why the headaches have persisted for so long, there are a couple of points I can make.

First, pressure is built up behind the eardrums if the eustachian tube is blocked. This connects the sinuses with the middle ear. The way to keep this open is to use nose spray (like Afrin) if you are congested. If you are not congested, you will need to "clear your ears." This is done by holding your nose and mouth shut, then blowing firmly. You may need to blow steadily and quite hard to open the ears, and it may take several tries. If one ear opens, use your free hand to close off that ear, too, so the extra pressure won’t hurt it. That should help folks who have trouble on planes, like I do.

Second, for chronic headaches, there is a double technique that helps most of the time. First, stop all pain medications, including Tylenol, aspirin, ibuprofen, narcotics, etc. Then add a small dose of amytriptiline (Elavil), which is a prescription medicine. We use 25 mg. at bedtime in most folks, a small dose. This helps block headaches. The technique works in about 80 percent of chronic tension headaches and migraines.

I hope that this may help some.

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