I would've posted this in the travel subforum, but it doesn't look like anyone posts there much. I went on a road trip a few years ago from Florida to Iowa. I noticed that as we got farther from Florida, I felt pressure in my ears, like they were about to pop. I've had that feeling when flying in the past. I'm just wondering if it has to do with the fact that I'm used to living basically at sea level my whole life. I had just never heard of people's ears popping while driving. Has this happened to anyone else? I did some research and couldn't find much aside from people saying having the back windows open could bother your ears. The windows were closed because it was cold at the time and we were mostly driving on the highways, and that would be too windy. I don't know why I'm just thinking about this now. But random thoughts pop up in my head sometimes.
I think it's pretty common... It happens for a number of reasons, change in elevation is one of them.
Happens to me every single time I drive over the Nantahala Mountains through Winding Stair Gap to get to Franklin, NC and points East. Going home's the same. Home: 2,000' Winding Stair Gap: 3,690' Franklin, NC: 2,000'
The tympanic membrane (ear drum) is between your outer and middle ear, In order to hear, it vibrates in the same way as the diaphragm in a microphone. In turn, 3 bones in the middle ear (Malleus Incus and Stapes) become resonant to the frequencies and send signals via the auditory nerve to the brain. In order to operate, the tympanic membrane needs to be free to resonate, therefore the air pressures on each side need to be the same. To achieve this, a small tapering tube (Eustachian tube) connects the middle ear to the nasal cavity. Used infrequently, this tube tends to block with mucus, so when you are exposed to any changes in air pressure, mucus bubbles up and down the tube. To make things more complicated, their is a lobe at the bottom of the tube. This should prevent mucus from travelling into the middle ear, along with viruses and pathogenic bacteria. However, the lobe is fairly inefficient and can easily swell when you have any bacterial infection. Its inefficiency can allow fluid to get trapped in the middle ear, causing a condition commonly known as "Glue Ear" . 95% of people suffer from problems due to all this, particularly during flight. Obviously our maker intended us to settle in one location and would have given us wings if he thought that we needed to fly.
Thanks everyone. I was having trouble finding info on this because everything was about ears popping when you fly, even though I specifically searched for ear popping while driving lol I'm glad to know it's not just me.
