Is Hitting Earmuff Cups Dangerous to Hearing/Tinnitus?

[Jaysterk]

After hitting my earmuffs with a swinging water hose (coin car wash), I must ask the question. Can hitting our earmuffs with things cause more damage to our ears?

Most of us here use earplugs as a form of protection. A lot of us also use earplugs. I've been
using earmuffs for a good year now since my tinnitus/hyperacusis started. However, I have managed to hit them plenty with my keys, walls, doors, and in other various ways.

I've done some research but can't find any conclusive answers or convincing arguments as to if hitting the cup on the earmuffs will cause additional damage.

As for me, this is something I will really like to know. We use earmuffs to help us protect our ears from potential damage. It would be a shame that constantly hitting them will outweigh the benefits of using them.

I think if we gather more data from people here that use earmuffs and their experience with "banging them" on onto things we can maybe come up with a more definitive answer to the question.

 

[Dunderklumpen]

Hi @Jaysterk. Long time since your question. This just happened to me. How did it go for you? Anyone else? Thanks!

 

[Benjaminbb]

It would be hard to have an answer to this because you can't really attribute long term damage to tiny individual moments. Maybe if someone hit their earmuffs and had a sudden increase in tinnitus. But it's like any loud sound really. If it's loud enough and your ears are damaged enough, it could increase your tinnitus.

 

[Mike TerMaaten]

What a cool question LOL. I've done this quite a few times. If your tinnitus is driven by the state you're in and you're the high strung easily agitated personality type, then temporarily you can hear a change your tinnitus.

But if you're suggesting that it could worsen your hearing damage/tinnitus, the answer is no.

If it was bad enough, and what you're describing doesn't even come close, you would develop a NEW TINNITUS from doing this.

Tinnitus comes from PROLONGED EXPOSURE to some awful noise. The human ear fatigues. Machinery and electronics always win.

 

[benjd2016]

Be careful with Sony WH1000XM4 headphones. I accidentally knocked the side of them pretty hard and really got an incredibly loud noise.

Not sure if it caused my distortion in the left ear. It could well have but I have no way to conclude or prove that.

But it was a very loud sound. At least 125 dB to my ears.

 

[Maruashen]

This has happened to me several times as well.

Once I bumped them into a doorframe, once I hit them with my watch, and I have knocked on them several times with my hands or fingers.

My tinnitus has not increased yet, I think, but I usually get a spike for about one day. That is probably because of anxiety.

I have measured the decibel range when this happened, and it has been anywhere between 65 and 95 dB.

It is tricky because you want to protect yourself from external noise, but instead you end up harming yourself with the protection.

I feel the same way about foam earplugs or silicone. They are great, but sometimes they get stuck in my ears a little, and when I take them out, they make some kind of sound, either a suction sound or more like a crunchy sound.

 

[Emperor-Drax]

This happened to me yesterday when a broomstick fell from a hanger and struck me on the right earmuff cup. It caused an enormous shockwave in my ear, as if it were inside a drum, along with a very loud, momentary tinnitus surge. The tinnitus has mostly subsided now, but I'm left with excruciating pain inside the ear and a burning sensation on the outer ear.

Today, my ear completely shut off for about 15 seconds, accompanied by another brief tinnitus wave that came and went. I'm very worried.

 

[Pen Walker]

I'm sorry that happened to you.

Could the brief tinnitus wave be a stapedial burst though? The kind where the ear goes silent, then starts ringing, and hearing returns after a few seconds?

If that's what it was, it's probably not connected to the incident.

As for the ear pain, I'd recommend visiting a doctor.

 

[PeteJ]

This happened to me yesterday when a broomstick fell from a hanger and struck me on the right earmuff cup. It caused an enormous shockwave in my ear, as if it were inside a drum, along with a very loud, momentary tinnitus surge. The tinnitus has mostly subsided now, but I'm left with excruciating pain inside the ear and a burning sensation on the outer ear.

Today, my ear completely shut off for about 15 seconds, accompanied by another brief tinnitus wave that came and went. I'm very worried.

I've hit myself with my earmuffs too. I don't wear them for very long, but I've had something similar happen after one of the cups got hit by something—or more like something hit it. It caused pain in the ear. I can't remember if there was a burning sensation, but there was definitely pain and some fullness afterward in that ear. It does go away, but it might take a while.

Spikes from loud noise are still the worst thing for me, but every now and then my ear canals become really irritated, and I get inner ear pain from wearing earplugs too often or from taking them out roughly. For some reason, it doesn't always go smoothly, since my ear canals are very fragile now.

My earmuffs are the Plexor (light green color), and they fit too tightly, almost like a clamp or vise on my ears, even when adjusted. I think part of the reason our ears are so fragile with these on is because of the cups and the trapped air. You really need to be careful when wearing them and try to avoid anything making contact with either cup. Also, be careful when taking them off—I shift mine a bit forward before removing them, because the trapped air needs a moment to escape.

I think your ear will heal; mine did after the earmuff cup collision. I know it's unpleasant—I remember that pain well, and it was hard waiting for it to improve. I don't record or document anything, so I can't remember exactly how long it took, although everyone's ears and genetics are different anyway. Take something for the pain if you need to, and I hope it heals soon for you.

 

[Emperor-Drax]

Yeah, doctors aren't much help for anything other than saying "best of luck." I guess I'll have to tough this out like I did after my first acoustic trauma back in 2018.

As a postscript, I'm sure they're related. Those kinds of things don't just happen by coincidence.

It's not the tinnitus that worries me. I've learned to live with that for years and have habituated to it quite well. It's the intense pain lingering in the ear that makes it hard to handle external sounds that would normally be tolerable. This would, of course, be described as noxacusis. I did recover from this before after my first acoustic trauma, but it took a few years for it to truly subside. Now I'm worried I've caused myself another injury from the very protective tool that's supposed to prevent my ears from being harmed, which feels incredibly unfair.

 

[Nes]

This happens to me all the time. My tinnitus has never gotten worse because of it. Rarely, I experience some brief tinnitus, but that might happen only once or twice a year, even though I bump my earmuffs daily.

 

[Emperor-Drax]

I've hit myself with my earmuffs too. I don't wear them for very long, but I've had something similar happen after one of the cups got hit by something—or more like something hit it. It caused pain in the ear. I can't remember if there was a burning sensation, but there was definitely pain and some fullness afterward in that ear. It does go away, but it might take a while.

Spikes from loud noise are still the worst thing for me, but every now and then my ear canals become really irritated, and I get inner ear pain from wearing earplugs too often or from taking them out roughly. For some reason, it doesn't always go smoothly, since my ear canals are very fragile now.

My earmuffs are the Plexor (light green color), and they fit too tightly, almost like a clamp or vise on my ears, even when adjusted. I think part of the reason our ears are so fragile with these on is because of the cups and the trapped air. You really need to be careful when wearing them and try to avoid anything making contact with either cup. Also, be careful when taking them off—I shift mine a bit forward before removing them, because the trapped air needs a moment to escape.

I think your ear will heal; mine did after the earmuff cup collision. I know it's unpleasant—I remember that pain well, and it was hard waiting for it to improve. I don't record or document anything, so I can't remember exactly how long it took, although everyone's ears and genetics are different anyway. Take something for the pain if you need to, and I hope it heals soon for you.

Thanks for the kind words. I was doing really well for many years until this happened to me the other day. I was always careful, wearing earplugs at loud events and earmuffs whenever I noticed a noise hazard around the house. Yet it still caught me and caused a really bad relapse.