Living in a Noisy City — How Much Should I Protect My Hearing?

Ok so here's my deal: I moved home to the suburbs for the summer, but I spend most of my year in NYC where it is quite loud. I was wondering if I should walk around the city with earplugs while out and about because I don't want to do any accidental damage to my ears. However, I've heard that wearing earplugs too often can lead to hyperacusis.

So, I guess I'm just wondering how often I should put in earplugs, what would be considered overprotection, and if you city-dwellers have any advice/words of caution for me.

Thank you!

 

I wear plugs whenever I visit NYC,
especially in restaurants. It is LOUD there!!! My advice is to always have them on you and when it gets loud, put them in!

 

What earplugs do you use for the restaurants? Are you able to hear with them what your friends are talking?

 

I wear Westone custom molded ear plugs and use the plastic inserts instead of filters which I don't think are strong enough to cut out most of the noise. I can hear people just fine and the plugs are easy to take in and out!

 

I wear earplugs often in NYC; it's one of the louder cities I've been in.

After moving out of the city and living in a quiet place for a couple years, my noise tolerance increased, a LOT. Take that as you will...

 

Glad to hear that things improved. No doubt that NYC is a really loud city, and the constant noise was irritating things, and preventing healing. In a quieter environment, healing can take place.

Hope your improvement is durable.

 

to be clear, I lived in DC and thought NYC was insanely loud even in comparison.

i still do all kinds of loud stuff, woods requires chainsaws dirtbikes mowers and guns, but my overall noise exposure still feels much reduced. Owning a 16hp lawnmower would have seemed unthinkable in 2013.

 

Hey thanks for the advice! I went to a restaurant today it was literally 80 DB inside. Crazy. I did wear my earplugs [I have custom hearsavers from emtech] for most of the day so hopefully that helped my ears out a bit.

 

wear plugs then hearing protection over it. NYC is so loud I really hated it there when I went. Time to consider moving i guesS?