How can I get my ears to pop?

Hold your nose, take a deep breath through your mouth, close your mouth and “blow” really hard through your mouth.

This has worked for me. Only do it once or twice though.

Next, try lying down on your side for a while. Clogged ear on a small towel on a pillow. In time, it may drain out on its own.

If it doesn’t work, you may wish to go to your local eye & ear clinic or hospital.

Best of luck.

Even lying on a heating pad under a towel might help to drain it. Q-tips are generally not recommended, anymore, because they tend to cram junk down into the ear canal.

Mix together equal parts rubbing alcohol and white vinegar put a couple of drops in your ear to prevent swimmer’s ear.

I qsecond @cprevite‘s recommendation to hold your nose, close your mouth and expel some air; but I would strongly suggest not to blow really hard; start with a mild-to-moderate blow

If things are truly congested, too much force may be very bad for your ear drums.

(Refer back to @Zemsky’s question about statements with question marks at the end.

If nothing else works,,,, you might want to buy a “Neti pot” and use a few drops of 4-way nasal spray with a saline solution,it will unclog not only your sinus but you inner ear.

@cprevite has just the right advice. By the way, the qtips were not a good idea.

And Neti pots cause a lot of pain if you have narrow Eustacean tubes? How do you discover that.

Do as I did and try the Neti Pot. Then shriek and jump around a lot.

Chew gum. Chew it a few times today and then tomorrow, ten to 30 minutes at a time. It will move the eustacian tube and hopefully open it up. It probably is not the Q-tip that cause the problem, although it can be dangerous to use a Q-tip, doctors recommend not using them. You can also take an antihistime to see if it helps. If it doesn’t open up in a couple days, or you are in a lot of pain, you might want to go to the doctor.

Are you able to make your other ear “pop” with what @cprevite recommended?

What is most likely happening to you is that the swimming loosened up accumulated ear wax and when you introduced the Q-tip, you pushed the ear wax up against your ear drum. A doctor can easily clean out your ear canal with a special ear sprayer.

Note: I am NOT a medical doctor.
This has happen to me several times over the years. I have cleaned out the ear wax from my own ears by putting a 1 to 10 dilution of the standard 3% hydrogen peroxide solution in my ears with a dropper. Then let the solution drain out and repeat this procedure a few more times during the next 24 hours. The ear wax will likely start to break-up by then and you will start to hear normally. If not, then use an eye-dropper with a bulb on the end and gently squirt warm water (body temperature) into your ear over the sink. You should see the ear wax clumps in the sink. It is important to use body temperature water because if the water is too cool or too warm, it will briefly mess with your ear’s balance mechanism which will make you feel dizzy.

Popping your ears is something you can practice when you are not swimming. Equalization of pressure is vital when you scuba dive and we were taught to ‘flex’ our Eustachian tubes as exercise so that when you are diving, those muscles will be strong and able to prevent a burst eardrum which I understand is quite painful.

try some swimmer’s ear drops or some kind of water-in-ear-getting-rid-of drops from your local drug store and follow the directions.