I agree with Paul that the Valsalva maneuver is a safe procedure when done properly. The key is to let the pressure build up gradually during the maneuver. Don't try and blow really hard and really fast at the same time. Slow and easy... Your hearing at any altitude will not be diminished as long as the pressure in your middle ear is equal to the pressure outside your head. Same for the descent, or the climb for that matter. The problem is that the "differential" between what is outside your head and what is inside your middle ear, is what causes the muffled hearing, primarily because the eardrum is being pushed outward by the greater pressure in your middle ear. When your eardrum is tighter, it can't vibrate as well, so the sounds don't translate as well to your middle ear. Hence, your hearing is muffled. As for airline cabins, the are typically between 5,000 and 8,000 feet. Just yesterday, I was flying back from Baltimore to LAX at 36,000 and the cabin was at 7,300 feet. Every Boeing or Airbus aircraft that I've ever flown has a max cabin altitude of 8,000 feet. The pressurization controllers schedule the cabin altitude based on your destination altitude. For example, if you're flying to Denver, during the descent the cabin will only descend to about 5,400 feet, the altitude at the airport. The pressure is already equalized before the doors are opened. A bit of advice... Don't fly when you have any sinus infections or head colds. They don't play well with the pressure changes. You will not like the way you feel when you get back on the ground! As for earplugs, they are great for noise reduction, but I fail to see any benefit in pressure change situations. The outer ear has no impact on pressure changes. It's all inside your head via your eustachian tube in the upper back part of your throat, which is why yawning, chewing gum, drinking, etc. are all beneficial. Due to the physiology at the end of your eustachian tube, it is much easier to equalize the pressure during a climb than during a descent. Regards, Rob McCall Murrieta, CA 15,000 pilot hours in 30 years of flying airliners around the world... On Jun 13, 2010, at 17:43 , paul bruesch wrote: > If you do get on the ground and find that your hearing has not come back, the best solution (in my opinion... Diane or other hearing professionals may or not disagree... please chime in, Diane!) is the Valsalva maneuver, where you hold your nose and exhale with increasing pressure until your ears clear.. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valsalva_maneuver > Your hearing is diminished because the pressure inside your head has equalized to the higher altitude (commercial airliner cabins are pressurized only to the equivalent of 7,000 - 10,000 feet). On descent, the cabin pressure increases (to a lower altitude equivalent) until landing and doors are opened. > > Paul Bruesch -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100615/ab3d9969/attachment.htm>
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