Is It a Bad Idea to Protect One Ear More Than the Other?

[Mister Muso]

So my hyperacusis is slowly improving as my body heals itself following acoustic trauma this April. Plus the Amitriptyline I'm taking definitely helps. I've been careful to avoid loud environments as far as possible.

My right ear is my bad ear, so quite often I'll just pop a silicone earplug in that ear if I'm around uncomfortable noise. When I need to, for example if out in noisy traffic, I'll plug both ears.

However I've seen a comment on here that it can be bad to plug just one ear. Does anyone know why? If it's my bad ear then surely it needs a bit more protection than the other one, which is what I am trying to do. I only do this for a few minutes a time, maybe 3-4 times a day at the most.

 

[GoatSheep]

"Recent studies that used earplugs to simulate conductive hearing loss in normal-hearing volunteers for several days have managed to shed some light on putative mechanisms of hyperacusis. After wearing the earplug for several days, the study participants rated sounds as louder than before, especially rating categories like "loud" and "too loud" had shifted by several deicbel (33, 34). Additionally, the majority of subjects also reported hearing phantom sounds (tinnitus) after several days of earplug-induced auditory deprivation (35). All changes were completely reversible, exaggerated loudness reverted to normal within several hours after the earplug was taken out. Interestingly, the changes in loudness occurred also at frequencies where the earplug did not provide much attenuation (33, 34), and even for sounds presented to the ear that had remained open when only one ear was plugged (34). These Changes in perceived loudness might then be caused by changes of a certain "master gain" in the auditory system, which would cause equal changes across frequencies. Such a mechanism could also account for the LDL pattern observed in hyperacusis patients. Moreover, these studies demonstrate that earplugs and possibly also sound-avoidance behavior might exacerbate hyperacusis"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4432660/


Are you talking about my comment in the other thread? I may not have even read that here necessarily it could have been somewhere else, but I'm sure I read it somewhere. Doesn't mean it wasn't just some individual saying it. So I'm not trying to give it merit.

I did just find this in the study I posted above that was interesting. But again this would be for your own evaluation.

Since you are doing it for brief periods throughout the day it probably wouldn't have the same effect as in the study above.

 

[Mister Muso]

Yes that was our conversation Thanks for the added info. The text in bold seems to address the impact on the unplugged ear that was observed, even when just plugging one ear.

Looking at those results, it seems even worse than I thought to use earplugs with hyperacusis if using them for hours at a time. I'm trying not to use them overnight any more, but on the occasions when I do, I'm sure my ears are more sensitive to sounds the next day, even though the amount of sound they are exposed to overnight must be very low-level.

Like you say, as long as we're just talking about short periods of plugging one or both ears lasting just a few minutes, there's probably little to worry about.

However, to avoid over-protecting, instead of using an earplug lately I've just been putting my finger in my bad ear briefly, for example when I have to use a noisy coffee machine at work, or someone starts rustling or rattling something around the house.

 

[Digital Doc]

For the most part, you have two ears, and they both should be protected from noise exposure. If one of yours has hyperacusis more than the other, the concern is that noise could end up damaging the good ear, leaving you with no good ear. A better plan is to use less protective earplugs as the hyperacusis eases up, but in both ears.

 

[Jupiterman]

I have the same issue.

I'm positive my right ear has worse hyperacusis than my left ear.

I think so because I have experimented plugging one ear for a period of time and exposing to normal sounds in my house. My reactive tinnitus ramped up a lot more when only the left ear was plugged.

However, with only my 'bad' right ear plugged, everything was a lot calmer. Tinnitus not reacting anywhere near as much.

To try and get more quality of life back, I am thinking of taking advantage of this.

Would it be OK, if I want relief from reactivity and hyperacusis, to plug only my right ear but leave the better left ear unplugged for extended periods of time?

If the answer is yes, how long would it be 'safe' to do this for? I need to consider the chance that the hyperacusis in my right ear could be there for several years and possibly for the rest of my life.

There are plenty of people who are deaf in one ear and just get on with their lives.

 

[Jupiterman]

I'm still curious of some help with my previous post (see above).

This thread has discussed this issue too. They concluded plugging just one ear wasn't a good idea as the tinnitus just spreads from plugged ear to the other ear. I think it's more the hyperacusis that is different between my ears; I believe I have it in right ear but hardly (if at all) in my left ear.

I am quite keen to try this, to plug my right (bad) ear with a 37 dB earplug and keep the left (good) ear completely open. I would want to do this for several hours at a time.

I know I am asking the same question again, but has anyone tried this or has some knowledge of it?

 

[Juan]

However I've seen a comment on here that it can be bad to plug just one ear. Does anyone know why?

Because ears will not equalize the pressure properly. It will mess up binaural hearing too.