There is a canal between the upper sinus cavity and the inner ear. If you were ever told to hold your nose and exhale to relieve pressure on your eardrum, this is the reason that trick works.
In 65 years, I have had one side open - could feel air wafting through - for about 10 seconds.
Then again, the hold nose and exile" trick doesn’t work for me.
So, am I normal, with a blocked canal, or should I have and open passageway?
(the brief open moment was the result of massive antibiotics - so it could be a resident bug that is causing te blockage.)
The middle ear is totally separated, sealed off, from the outer ear by the ear drum… normally.
If you have a perforated ear drum, then air can flow through from outer ear to middle ear and then Eustachian tubes and into the throat/trachea
Yes an infection can perforate the ear drum, but anyway when you do open the eustachian tube you do get to hear your breathing (air swirling in the sinuses) … so just hearing “warm swirly air” doesnt make it a perforated air drum … hearing the sinus’ air flow as a loud noise indicates the ear drum is working properly… the idea that its “warm moist air” in your ears may be “conditioning”… You expect it so you feel it…
44 years old. Once every few years my eustachian tubes spontaneously open, and stay open for a couple of minutes. During this time the mere act of breathing through my nose raises and lowers the pressure on the inside of my eardrums, and I can hear the sound of my breathing much more directly (as opposed to the sound from my nostrils normally traveling around the outside of my head to my ears); I have to breathe gently while the tubes are open, lest the pressure fluctuations become painfully large. It’s such a rare event that I haven’t figured out what makes it happen.
The only way I ever experienced it was via massive dosages of antibiotic (thought I had an inner ear infection).
Even maintaining that dosage for another 2 days never repeated the phenomenon.
Back when i was SCUBA diving I was taught to exercise my ears by gently puffing my cheeks several days before diving. By doing that i have always been able to control my inner ear pressures even now 15 years <> later.
Now i had to puff about 20 times to completely clear my ears to where i don’t have to work my jaw back and forth to equalize.
One can very easily injure the eardrum(s) by blowing to forcefully with the nose pinched off. Just use your cheeks to slowly increase the pressure.