Ear Problem
 

If all goes well I am about to embark on an abinito ATPL programme in the UK. I have passed the aptitudes and the Class 1 Medical.

However I do have a tendancy to grind teeth at night causing a sore ear. Dentist has treated by making bite guard. This works reasonably well, but on a recent flight I noticed my right ear got really sore as we descended. Any experiences of this sort of thing. I am very worried this could potentially cause me a problem.

Hi vicento. Lots of reasons for teeth grinding. The guards stop you wrecking your teeth but don't actually cure it. However, it shouldn't give you a sore ear on descent.

Is it possible you might have a concurrent condition?

Bad Medicine might be able to help you out with this.

It sounds like 2 separate problems to me. Teeth grinding can cause damage to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), which is in front of the ear, and can present with ear pain. Pain on descent in the aircraft is usually due to a dysfunction of the eustachian tube (the tube that allows the volme of the middle ear to equalise with changing pressures). I would see an ENT surgeon to define the problem a little better. Did you have a cold or hayfever at the time of the flight?

Hi Guys,

GP checked it out today and said it looks fine and said there was no point in a specialist. He did mention that it liiked slightly different from my left ear, but wasn't inflammed.

I am still worried though, am I overreacting?

I'd be tempted to adopt a "wait and see" approach for a single episode of ear pain on descent. It wouuld certainly be worth pursuing an "expert" opinion if your symptoms persist.

Try searching this forum for "eustachian tube problems" to get some tips on self help measures you could try.

After seeing an ENT Surgeon he concluded that everything was fine. It must just have been a dodgy descent with a bit of flu mixed in.

Thanks for advice guys.

The grinding is called Bruxism, and is usually stress related. The tooth guard protects the teeth, but doesn't cure the problem. I sometimes get very stiff jaw muscles from the grinding, but a bit of ultrasound on the muscles helps a lot.