I read a thread a page or two down about ear crackling and plugged ears, so I was just curious... my ears have always popped/crackled for as long as I can remember. In fact I can just pop them at will, I don't have to swallow or hold my nose and blow or anything. When I get colds and my ears get clogged, sometimes they stop popping/ I lose the ability to just pop them at will.

Is this normal in anyone else? I always found it weird, because when I fly in airplanes I don't have to swallow or anything, I can just pop my ears.

[edited to change typo in subject line]

Well, I don't know if it's normal or not, but I can do this too. However in my case it is learned, as I used to do a lot of scuba diving and I am both a pilot, and fly commercially quite a bit. The only "side effect" is that, as you say, you find it easier to equalize to changes in ambient pressure. Where some divers have to hold their nose closed and blow, to equalize the water pressure on the way down, I often only have to wiggle my jaw.

So, of course, now you can understand the first half of my username. The second half hints as to where I dive, but that's another story.

There is also a possibility of TMJ issues. In my case, my ears would "crunch" every time I swallowed, because my teeth were not alligned properly. That has since, been fixed to the point that it doesn't bother me anymore.

My ears crackle and pop, too. I remember when I was about 10 years old, I all of a sudden noticed that they did that. I didn't really get a lot of ear infections or have pain. This is just annoying. I have had my ears checked, nothing wrong. I have always had sinus problems, though..

I have TMJ but I didn't get that till I was in high school, and it's pretty mild, no need for surgery or even a mouthpiece at night. I also have a lot of sinus problems. I used to have them when I was younger then they went away for a while, but now they're back, maybe it came from the sinus problems when I was younger. The popping/crackling never bothered me though.