In the last few years I started getting a clogged ear due to sinus infections. Read my full story below to find out how you can clear your clogged up ear and sinuses at home and avoid the Dr.
Every time my allergies act up, if my nose gets really stuffy, my right ear canal will clog up too and reduce my hearing on that side. The first time it happened the clogged ear continued long after the sinus attack got better. It was very uncomfortable. I didn't realize it was from sinuses then, I thought I had something stuck in my ear canal, maybe just wax, so from the outside I poured in Alcohol and de waxing cures, and stuck in Qtips over and over, and never got any relief.
After I suffered like this - with poor hearing and uncomfortable pressure in my head for over a month and a half, I ended up going to an Ear Nose & Throat Dr to try to find out what was wrong. He said I had had an ear infection and I should have my ear drum lanced to relieve the pressure and it worked right away. It was only lightly painful when the Dr lanced the eardrum. Then my ear drained yellow gunk (like infection puss) for two weeks! Yuck! Then the puncture healed and I was fine, for a while...
The next time I got a sinus attack my ear clogged up again. This time it went away on its own within 2 weeks.
I had a few more times where I thought I would have to go get relief from an ENT again and then it would clear up on it's own before my appointment. Which was fine with me because my insurance sucks and I have to pay $70 for Dr appointments! And that does not count additional charges for special services!
I wondered if I could lance my own ear drum to avoid going to the Dr. but I worried about infection so I never did it. But by now I knew it was occurring every time I got a sinus flare up with very stuffy nose and usually a sore face in that area too, so I knew it was due to the sinuses.
I always use nasal spray when I get an allergy attack but try not to use it so much my nose gets 'addicted', just for a few days. I try to mostly get by using just sudafed or Claratin D.
Then this week I have had such a stuffed up nose and facial soreness and pressure - and I simply could not breath thru my nose at all especially when I sleep. I had been using the nasal spray for a week. My ear was clogged bad. I use 4-Way Nasal Spray- an over the counter remedy which always works but for a short time. But this time it only worked for a VERY short time and my nose would clog back up, and sudafed or Claratin D or Tylenol Severe Cold and Flu did not even put a dent in the pressure and stuffiness. I knew I had a sinus infection cause my nasal mucus was yellowish green in the mornings. I took some Amoxicillin I had in my medicine cabinet for a week and it wouldn't go away.
I started irrigating my sinuses with a netti pot to try to clean them with out using nasal spray but on the few times it did get all the gunk out of my nose it only lasted 20 minutes. And it never cleared my ear, but I did start to notice that when using the neti pot, if I pinched my nose close and tipped my head around in all directions to kinda swish the saline around in my sinuses, I would feel it in my ear canal a little. Then I knew I was possibly going to be able to clear out my ear canal this way but try as I might, with hot water, salt saline, nothing cleared my ear out.
But then I got the idea to put a little nasal spray medicine in the neti pot and wash with that, just maybe it would relieve the pressure and swelling WAY back near my inner ear canal....I was desperate!
I didn't use much, like a few drops of nasal spray with 1/2 cup saline, and I rinsed my sinuses with it. I pinched my nose shut, and tipped my head too a fro and back and forth and tipped it all around, with the solution inside my sinuses, to get it in all the corners and canals, (it helps to look at pictures of sinus cavities to see where they are and understand how it helps to tilt your head around the way i did) and as soon as I let the solution out and started blowing my nose, lots of green gunk started coming out with each nose blow, then suddenly my ear canal popped lightly and I blew out green gunk for 20 minutes and I could feel and hear air going in my ear canal finally - and it came out till it was all gone and my ear was clear and unclogged! And it has not come back 2 days later so far. Though my nose is still stuffy, my ear is not clogged!
I will now do this right away anytime my ear starts to clog up with allergy flare ups.
NOTE: I did feel a tiny prick of pain when I tipped my head around and saline went in my ear canals, but not enough to stop, and it did not do any damage. So don't be alarmed if you feel a tiny prick of pain when you do this. You ear canals are not used to feeling anything like this in them. And it cannot go far enough in them to hurt them.
And neti pots are a very
good way to just clean your sinuses if you don't like to use medicated nasal
sprays.
Or just irrigate your nose daily or weekly for that clean fresh feeling!
Be sure to have a box of kleenex nearby - you will need them to blow your nose
ALOT after irrigating the sinuses.
Also, once your ear clears, you are likely to have ALOT of the dark yellow nasal infection mucous coming out over the next few days, so plan on blowing your nose ALOT!
Search google - you can buy them at most drug stores these days. It takes a few tries to figure out how to use them but they work very well.
Hope this has helped you! I searched google far and wide for a home solution to this problem and now that I found one I am posting it so you all can have the same safe simple home relief from a clogged ear canal due to sinus and allergy infections.
Tiffany Moore.
Here is a video on how to use a neti pot
MIRACLE Clogged Ear, Ear pressure relief, sinus nasal pressure, swelling in ears from sinusitis and allergies- that I discovered to do at home, instead of getting your ear drum lanced at the Dr.