Ear Clearing and Throat exercises

These exercises may help with equalising the pressure in your ears.  They may also be of assistance for sufferers of obstructive sleep apnoea.

The BTV softest method “to clear your ears”

Source: Sport medicine, Bd St Marcel, Paris

1) General Instructions

Remove necklaces and all that grips the neck.
Straighten the head rather than looking down.
Hold the hyoid bone in one hand without shaking too hard and get in front of a mirror to see Adam’s apple, or hold a mirror in the other hand (Note: The hyoid bone is the little bone that holds Adam’s apple).
The exercises are done preferably in the morning, fasting; observe a 5-second rest between exercises.
The duration of this program is 1 month, divided into 4 1-week periods.

2) Exercises in the first week

Do these exercises three times every morning on an empty stomach, for a week. Exercise slowly, with a 5 second pause between exercises.

A. Tongue exercises

Mouth wide open, pull tongue forward so as to reach your chin with the tip of your tongue. Then, mouth still wide open, bring the tongue back, leaving the tip of the tongue on the floor of the mouth. Push back and down the base of the tongue. Check the lowering of the hyoid bone and Adam’s apple in the mirror. It should be at its maximum.
Mouth wide open, put the tip of the tongue behind the upper incisors and, with the tip of the tongue, scrape the palate backwards trying to touch the uvula.
Mouth wide open, the tip of the tongue being applied against the lower incisors, get the tongue out of the mouth as much as possible, the tip of the tongue always remaining applied against the lower incisors.

B. Exercises with the soft palate

Mouth wide open, tongue at rest in the mouth, do a swallowing movement, stopping when the soft palate starts to contract. Check the lowering of the hyoid bone. This exercise, the most important, is successful where the beginning of swallowing causes nausea.

C. Combined exercises with tongue and soft palate

Mouth wide open, the tip of the tongue against the lower incisors, the back of the tongue being pushed down and back, practice an incomplete swallowing movement, stopping at the stage of contraction of the soft palate. Check the effectiveness of this exercise. The hyoid bone, moved down by the thrust at the bottom and back of the base of the tongue must be lowered even more by the movement of incomplete swallowing arrested during contraction of the palate.

3) Exercises in the second week

To add to A, B and C exercises:

D. Exercises with jaw, tongue and palate

Mouth half closed, lower jaw extended forward, the tip of the tongue resting against the lower incisors, tongue out of the mouth as much as possible, do an incomplete swallowing movement stopping during the contraction of the soft palate.

E. Closed mouth exercises

Mouth closed, practice exercises B, C and D, with particular emphasis on exercise B.

4) Exercises during the third week

Practice all the exercises, but on a fast pace with an emphasis on exercise B, mouth closed.

5) Exercises during the fourth week

Same exercises, but mouth closed for A, B, C and D – and increase the repetitions for E:

Mouth closed,

C, D E five times
B ten times

6) Check effectiveness

Twice a week, do the Valsalva (Blow strongly mouth closed and nose pinched). Then do exercise B, mouth closed, and assess the number of contractions of the palate necessary to remove the impression of fullness in the ear.

 

(Originally posted in French by http://apnee.ffessm.fr/Apnee/compensation.htm)

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