What causes ear barotrauma?

What causes ear barotrauma?

Ear injury barotrauma happens when something blocks your eustachian tube or it becomes inflamed. Your eustachian tube runs from the back of your middle ear to the back of your throat. It helps maintain equal air pressure on both sides of your ear drum by letting outside air into your middle ear.

When air can’t reach your middle ear, air pressure builds up in the space behind your ear drum, causing the pressure in your middle ear to become unbalanced. The air pressure difference can make your ears hurt. You may feel intense pressure in your ear. Very rarely, the pressure can damage your eardrum, bruising it or causing it to rupture.

Fortunately, there are several ways to unblock your eustachian tubes, such as yawning, chewing gum or blowing your nose.