Talk:Eustachian tube

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Have had problems with my Eustachian tube for 5 days. My doctor thinks thinks this is a bi product of a heavy cold which has hung around this February.

He has prescribed a nasal spray to clear my lingerring chest infection.

Are there any miracle cures out there?

Would welcome an email from anyone with help?

grapow@btinternet.com

Contents 1 Nature vs nurture in muscle control. 2 Eustachian 3 Copyright violation? 4 Breathing? 5 Eustacian tube problems!! 6 Popityclickety

[edit] Nature vs nurture in muscle control.

Some people are born with the ability to contract just these muscles voluntarily, similar to people who can wiggle their ears.

Can anyone verify whether this ability is naturally inborn or trained? I didn't know how to wiggle my ears until I was 10. :-) changed 15:17, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

As long as I can remember I've been able to control the muscles of my eustachian tube. - RyanAH 12 July 2006

You mean not everyone can do that? Wow. I never knew any word for it either, just 'clicking your ears'... if you can't do it voluntarily, how do you relieve pressure when you go up in an elevator?

Swallow or yawn. This is a reason that chewing gum is so popular on airplane flights. -Warriorness 22:08, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I think this ability is naturally inborn, however finding out whether one has the ability is by accident and only if one is somehow made aware of this through the coincidence of 'clicking my ears' with 'pressure relief' without resorting to jaw movements (neither swallowing nor yawning). - sdyue (one who added comment about 'kalikkity') As long as I can remember, I too have always had the ability as well as my brother, and my children. Discovered ability from the ordeal of airline trips when very young (aged around 2 to 4). Always wanted to know if there was a more biological 'technical' or 'medical' term for this ability, but have not yet found it (already asked my family doctor, to which there was no answer).

Interesting! I can "click my ears" but I never read about it. I asked a doctor long ago and he gave me a blank look and said he'd never heard of it. Thanks, wikipedia. Bealevideo (talk) 01:35, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

I can also click my ears. Didn't think anyone knew/talked about it till I finally looked it up. Cool! I can also do this thing where I open the tubes up, pinch my nose, and breath out, so air builds up behind my eardrums like balloons. It actually feels good because sometimes my muscles feel "strained" there. LOL. Sometimes though it's impossible to do if you have a cold (had a cold on a plane and tried desperately to pop them but it seemed like it was sealed closed. Had to let them pop themselves)- Tina 29 April 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.82.29.79 (talk) 20:39, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

I 'learned' how to do this when I was ten, during a flight from New York to London. I couldn't get the pressure to equalize in my ears, so I spent hours moving my jaw and yawning trying to clear it. After the flight, I found I could pop my ears at will, and I've been doing it for over 20 years now.Foij00 (talk) 22:13, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Eustachian

What, are there pseudo-stachian tubes?

[edit] Copyright violation?

The paragraph starting with "Behind the nose and up above the tonsils" is verbatim from Chapter 6 of Dr. Gerald Poesnecker's "It's Only Natural." Could that count as fair use? BradAGrantham 19:55, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Breathing?

The article said that when a person who has voluntary control over the muscles opens or closes the 'tubes, they are forced to breathe. As one of these people, I can certainly say that this is not the case. I've deleted the misinformation - if it turns out that I'm just a freak of nature, you can find it in the history. -Warriorness 22:08, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Eustacian tube problems!!

I have had issues with my ears for a number of years now. On a 'specialists' advice I had surgery on my septum to straighten it - supposedly to eleviate my ear stress. This changed nothing. The air just does not flow properly. All the medical tests say I am fine. I have hearing loss so bad at times I can't talk on the phone. Does anybody have any advice at all???

Desperate! bluebery@telus.net

[edit] Popityclickety

What part of the eustachian tube causes the popetyclickety sound? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.231.228.0 (talk) 06:34, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

The following mechanism is just a guess, but: The muscle that is under voluntary control in opening the eustachian tube, the tensor veli palatini, shares innervation with the tensor typmani muscle and these are both active during mastication. (The tensor tympani tightens to quiet the noise of chewing) Voluntarily contracting the TVP might also activate the TT and cause a clicking noise as the ossicles move. So, it might be that no part of the tube makes a noise. It's just a floppy meat hose anyway. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.160.104.29 (talk) 04:25, 10 April 2008 (UTC)