Blow Drying Ears?

[Stacey427]

Hi All,

Haven't posted in such a long long time, just been living with it. I've learnt to live (I guess) with it.

General question: I've had a spike (higher additional pitch squeal) in both ears after blow drying my ear canals.

Now I do this after I wash my hair to dry out any possible water residue (to hopefully prevent infections etc and water getting trapped as been prone too). I hold my hairdryer approx 20-30 cm away from my ear canals and blast on cool, gently, for about 5-6 minutes per ear. Now usually I'm ok, but unfortunately tonight I've had an increase which isn't going away and I find it rather upsetting.

I guess I'm basically asking have I done further permanent damage by doing this? I do it approx once a fortnight and usually I'm ok, but now it's bad and won't go back down! Naturally I'm anxious and upset.

I also did a decibel reading and the blow dryer got up to 105 dB.

Should I be seriously worried?

Thanks in advance all. X

 

[Lex]

Since you already have T, please don't blow-dry your ears again. I think it's unnecessary noise exposure.

 

[jimH]

@Stacey427 ...It's probably just a temporary spike. However, I do agree with @Lex. Don't continue to blow dry your ears. For a person with Tinnitus, that's really pushing your luck !

You state that your hair dryer is 105 db. You might want to consider this low-noise dryer from Panasonic. The customer reviews are very positive. Mostly five stars except one 4 star. It's also rated at 12oo watts. So, it's not low noise because of low power. It works ok on 110 volts outlet power that we have here in the USA. However, I don't know what standard outlet voltage is there in Australia and if it can operate on that voltage. You can post that question there on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Lo...07214943&sr=8-1&keywords=low+noise+hair+dryer

 

[GregCA]

I wouldn't dry my ears with a blow dryer.
The chances of infection are really slim since the water that could possibly be trapped is from your hair wash, which means it's treated (I assume drinkable tap water). Infections usually occur from water that is untreated (when you swim in the sea/ocean/lake, etc).
If you feel water in your ear and it bothers you, you could try to tilt you head to let the water escape through natural gravity, or just wait until it evaporates naturally.