Voluntary Eustachian tube opening

How it works

The Eustachian tube runs from the middle ear down to the back of the throat. It is normally closed. It opens for a fraction of a second each time you swallow or yawn, to let air in or out and keep the pressure behind the eardrum equal to the pressure outside¹. The click you hear when swallowing on a plane is the tube opening.

Two small muscles in the soft palate pull it open. The main one is the tensor veli palatini³. It is controlled by the trigeminal nerve, the same nerve that runs the tensor tympani, the muscle behind ear rumbling³. This is why some people who can rumble their ears also open their tubes at the same time.

Most people open the tube only by swallowing or yawning. Divers and pilots learn to open it directly, by tensing the palate muscles alone. The method is called voluntary tubal opening, or BTV from its French name². It sits alongside other ear-clearing methods, such as pinching the nose and blowing, which work by forcing air up the tube from below².

When the tube is held open, your own voice and breathing sound loud and hollow inside the ear. This is a normal effect and it stops when the tube closes.

Try it

1. Swallow and listen for a small click in each ear. That is the tube opening.
2. Start a yawn with your mouth closed. Stop halfway, at the point where your ears feel open.
3. Try to hold that pulled-up feeling in the back of the roof of your mouth without the yawn.
4. Breathe in through your nose. If you hear your own breath loudly inside your ear, the tube is open.
5. Practise on a plane or in a lift, where a pressure change tells you at once whether it worked.