Do Earmuffs Cause Occlusion Effect? Hitting the Cups? Scared!

Good evening to you,

I was wondering if earmuffs cause an occlusion effect like earplugs do? After all, there is much more space between them and the actual ear canal, and I cant find an answer online?

I am very scared because of something that happened to me today. I was wearing earmuffs when entering a shop because they had some balloons on display and I know better than not to avoid those menaces. Wehen I finished my shopping and went back to the car, I went to take my earmuffs off but somehow I managed to hit one cup with my wedding band! It made a clunky type noise and it SCARED the shit out of me. I was already having a spike bc of the stress from Christmas shopping and the ballons (and little kids running around trying to pop them!) so I don't know if this caused any problem? I am so scared of it. How loud can it be? Does the Occlusion effect apply, even if I wear glasses and thus there's not 100% tight seal? I feel so stupid! I am always very careful but I had never thought my wedding band could pose a threat. I feel stupid and desperate.

Has this happened to anyone here already?
Is there something beside steroids I could take which really helps?

 

My Ts pretty bad and I bump stuff into my muffs (accidentally of course) more regularly than I'd like to, but it's usually not an issue because the noise is over so quickly. The worst was when I smacked the right side with a 50lb dumbell while I was curling at the gym (ouch), but I don't believe it did any real damage. You should be fine.

-Ross

 

it happens and it's scary but any spike i've noticed is from the stress not from the sound

 

That's not the same as the occlusion effect. You may get some minor effect from earmuffs, but it's not nearly as bad as the occlusion effect you get with earplugs.

As for the clunking sound, it's disconcerting, but I don't think it's anywhere near being dangerously loud.

 

I made a thread on this two weeks ago, most of the time I wear my muffs for hoovering I manage to hit a wall or something and it makes that clunk, I don't think it's loud or long enough to cause any damage though.

 

I've done this a few times but honestly it has never felt that loud. My ears respond much less to blunt type noises and far, far more to high-pitched ones.

 

This is unrelated to the occlusion effect.
I wouldn't worry about it.

 

You are doing the right thing when you wear muffs in those environments where you might be exposed to loud noises. If you are worried about the cups of the muffs being hit with anything, you could wear ear plugs underneath your muffs.

This Had happened to me recently. I hit the ear muff cup on the side of the car, as I was getting into the car. It was loud. It scared me. I had a spike but it didn't last long.

One person shared with me that he had accidentally touched a shaver that was on to the cup. It was loud, but didn't cause any permanent damage.

Try to be careful and not do that again. And don't worry about it causing any lasting damage. It ought to be ok.

 

this just happened to me when getting out of the car and I dont know if am spiking or not but T has been so awful lately though I did notice something 30 minutes after the incident

 

I put my sound meter inside the cup and knocked against the cup with a key. I was able to get a 107 dB decibels with a moderate force so it can in fact be pretty loud.

Amazing though you can get a 100 dB by squeezing a plastic water bottle if you put the meter close by.

 

Yeah, but is it actually 100 dB? I've heard a balloon popping can get up to 160 dB for a fraction of a second. Curious how we can't just hear balloons popping at Riley's birthday party, two neighborhoods away.

 

That's a good question. Are decibels equal no matter the source? Or is there something else that make some more dangerous. Balloons are very dangerous I remember popping them as a kid and they used to make my ears ring of course I didn't know about the dangers at the time

 

A year or so ago, someone had pointed out that when two sounds are at the same volume (measured in dB), the one that is higher pitched carries more energy. I am not really sure what to make of it.

 

I certainly hope not... I had one popped about 3 feet from me last sat. I've haven't had a spike from it, just regular 'ol shit T.

 

All the ear Muffs will make loud sounds when hit Except the peltor x5a

You won't win the fashion award with these on though

I use those for. Airplanes, commuting and gym and loud restaurants when looks isn't an issue

 

Noticed it seems quite loud for sure. There are handy men in the house using loud power drills and so I put on some earmuffs. My cell phone rang a few minutes ago and I got sidetracked in the moment, so I forgot I still had the earmuffs on - banged the cell phone right into the earmuff cup. Surely such an event wouldn't be 120+ db or enough to cause any damage?

 

After whacking my left earmuff today against the pantry door, I got a muffled ear and a tinnitus spike. Reproducing the event with my calibrated SPL meter placed in the muff showed about 94 dBC. Not happy at all. This was louder than anything else I had managed to hit my muffs against in the past 12 months (and I hit them inadvertently probably about 18-20 times).