Why does my ear feel blocked?
Your ear usually feels blocked from wax buildup, pressure from colds and flights, fluid lingering after infections, or water trapped from swimming. The pressure kind happens as the ear's ventilation tube swells shut. Each feels remarkably similar from inside.
What helps: swallowing, yawning and gentle nose-pinched pressure for flights; olive oil or wax-softening drops for wax; time and decongestants around colds. What harms: cotton buds, which ram wax deeper and scratch canals, and ear candles, which are theater with burns.
Blockage beyond two weeks, pain, discharge, or any sudden hearing loss, the last is urgent, deserves an actual look inside; sudden deafness is treated as an emergency.
Source: NHS, earwax build-up
Try the symptom diary10 seconds a day, free, nothing to installTime of day, what came before it and how long it lasted are the three things you will be asked and the three nobody remembers.
Answered by the AskDoc Medical Team · Medically reviewed under our Medical Director, MBBS · How we review
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