Upvote:1
The best way is to have a chewing gum. You can also block your nostrils, close your mouth and push the air through your ear conduits.
If you have a cold, it might get worse. There are some medicines available to take before the flight.
Upvote:4
This is a common problem, especially if you have a flu and your nose is clogged. What usually does the trick for me is:
A quick google for "ear pressure relief" adds to the list:
Wikihow has a similar list on tricks that includes recommendations on medicine. Besides what has already been said they recommend:
Also stay awake during the flight so you don't miss the initial part of the descent sleeping which is usually hardly noticed but makes for a good part of pressure difference to build up which then takes time to compensate (we're talking days here).
In a discussion to a somewhat related question it was mentioned that there are business jets which offer sea-level altitude pressure if you are willing and able to splurge on that.