Blowing your nose incorrectly can cause trauma to your ears. Especially in the winter months, with cold and flu season causing a stuffy or runny nose, you need to be careful about blowing your nose too much. It’s a simple thing that we often don’t think about, but this repetitive action can damage your ears. In severe cases, blowing your nose too hard can cause you an earache or even rupture your eardrum.
The nose, ear, and mouth are connected. However, a forceful nose-blow can cause a rapid change in pressure behind the eardrum. This change in pressure can cause pain in your ear, a longer-lasting earache, or a ruptured eardrum.
Here are some simple steps to help prevent damaging your eardrums by correctly clearing your nasal passages when needed:
- Keep both nostrils open when blowing your nose.
- Blow gently into a tissue through both nostrils.
- You can partially close one nostril if you’re careful not to close it all the way, but this is not recommended.
- Wipe any remaining mucous from your nose, dispose of tissue, and wash your hands.
If you blew your nose too hard already and heard a pop followed by pain, you may have damaged your eardrum and should consult a hearing care provider. A small pop might be your eustachian tub equalizing the presser of your inner ear and outer ear.
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When your ears are clogged, it can be tempting to plug your nose and blow to try and relieve the pressure. While that’s one method, it may not be the best treatment for clogged ears. Your ears can become clogged if there’s been a build-up in pressure in the Eustachian Tube. Swallowing or yawning can sometimes be enough to open up the Eustachian tube and let air pass through.
Clogged ears can also be caused by earwax impaction, fluid, or sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL). The latter isn’t actually a clogged ear, but rather only gives the sensation of one of your ears being stopped up. It’s a serious condition with an extremely limited window of time for treatment. If SSHL occurs, you should see a hearing care provider like those at Accurate Hearing Systems immediately.
Accurate Hearing Systems offers a free hearing test at our office in Anchorage, Alaska. If you’re concerned about hearing loss or want to have a baseline to measure potential hearing damage in the future, call us or schedule a hearing test online. Our team of friendly hearing health professionals is ready to help.
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Accurate Hearing Systems is a state-of-the-art hearing aid provider in Anchorage, AK offering hearing aids and hearing tests in an atmosphere that has a “feel right at home” quality.Contact usto make an appointment today. If you’ve visited our offices before, pleaseleave a reviewto let us know about your experience.
