Clogged ears on a flight can be annoying at best and acutely painful at worst. A viral TikTok clip claims to have the solution.

Airplane ear, as the condition is known (or ear barotrauma if you want to impress your ENT), happens as a result of sudden changes in air pressure acting on your middle ear.

Particularly during takeoff and landing, the quickly altering altitude can result in popping, muffled hearing, and, sometimes, severe ear pain. Airplane ear is likely to be worse if you've already got nasal congestion going into the flight due to a cold or sinus infection. Having a stuffed-up head only puts more pressure on your eardrum.

Tried-and-true methods for unclogging ears during a flight all have to do with getting them to pop by working the muscles of the jaw and soft palate to open the eustachian tubes, the narrow passageways connecting the middle ear to the back of your nose.

Eustachian tubes ordinarily let outside air into the empty chamber that is your middle ear so that your eardrum can vibrate properly. But airplane ear causes eustachian tubes to close up. Hence all the pressure and discomfort.

Common remedies include frequent swallowing, forced yawns, chewing gum -- anything that keeps your jaw moving.

There's also the impressively named Valsalva maneuver, which simply involves taking a breath, closing your mouth, pinching both nostrils shut, and then pressing the air out without puffing your checks.

If those methods don't relieve your in-flight ear pain, there's another strategy you can try, according to TikTok user @babygriffin.

In a video that has been viewed more than 6 million times since it was posted in early December, the TikTokker is shown on an airplane and she's holding a disposable paper cup over her ear. Overlaid text reads, "When the flight attendant sees you struggling & saves you with a 'hot cup,' because you thought your ear drum was going to explode during descent."

You'll need a paper coffee cup and some napkins or paper towels.

Put the paper in the bottom of the cup and ask a flight attendant to make the napkins damp with hot water. (Airline crew will have hot water on hand if they serve tea and coffee.)

Then put the open end of the cup over your ear. Await sweet relief.

The TikTokker recommends ordering a "hot cup" from the flight crew when you're in pain -- though she does say she had to explain what a "hot cup" is on a subsequent flight. So don't expect every flight attendant to know what you mean by "hot cup."

Though the hot cup trick for treating ear pain might not be widely known, it's not new.

In fact, many medical pros have previously recommended the remedy, whether for ear pain experienced in the air or on the ground.

The method helps, experts say, because the steam in the cup relaxes tension around the ear, improving blood flow and making it easier for the eustachian tubes to open and do their job of balancing pressure inside the ears.

The hot cup hack is worth adding to your arsenal of ways to fight airplane ear.

To prevent clogged ears in the first place, try the classic strategies (yawning, swallowing, chewing gum, and the Valsalva maneuver) during takeoff and landing.

Over-the-counter nasal sprays and oral decongestants taken 30 minutes to an hour before the flight can be effective as well. Don't overdo it with sprays, however, because they can eventually make congestion worse.

Passengers who are pregnant or have certain heart conditions should avoid oral decongestants. Don't give decongestants to young children, either.