Most Comfortable Earmuffs

I have 4 different pairs of earmuffs. One for each floor of my townhouse and one for my car.

They are all Peltor. 4 different models. X3, X5, Sport and the others I can’t remember but they are similar to the Optime 105 but definitely a cheaper step down model.

I’ve recently had a pretty bad noxacusis setback. I’m not wearing earmuffs long periods of the day really. Just for loud activities and occasionally 15 minutes or so to rest my ears here and there.

I’m having an immense amount of facial pain that I feel is tied to the earmuffs squeezing around my ears. The worst culprit is the X3 followed by the X5, but they are my most effective pairs. I’m just wondering has anyone else had this problem in the past and did you find a comfortable pair that made the problem ease up or resolve?

Also, what are the most compact pair of earmuffs anyone has used? Like a fold up set that fits fairly easily in a jacket pocket. Getting in earplugs in emergency situations like fire alarms going off at stores seems harder than throwing on a pair of earmuffs quickly.

 

Yeah, I’ve been in earmuffs most of the day for months and I can tell chewing food is starting to set my noxacusis off now. Maybe something to do with the earmuffs squeezing my jaw that’s affecting my inner ear. Peltors are horrible for that sorta thing man, they squeeze so hard. Honestly I don’t think you should have a problem if you’re not wearing them too often.

I got these Walker’s folding earmuffs that are slim and I bought them for the gun range years ago and they work pretty good, and the pad is flatter so it doesn’t squeeze as hard. They have less protection though. A couple guys I’ve been talking to have themselves got TMJ from wearing Peltors so often. They wore them like 12 hours a day though.

And yeah noxacusis sucks man, tbh if I were you I would just pop in earplugs if you go anywhere public at all just in case. When you get home take them out. Prevents stupid accidents from happening. Look up Black Noise earplugs, or Mack’s Blackout earplugs. Both black foam earplugs, if you get them in all the way, people don’t even notice. I did this for months, even to bars, and nobody noticed. They are on Amazon.

 

I wouldn't think it would cause an issue since I'm not wearing for long periods either. However, every time I put them on and take them off recently the pain follows almost immediately afterwards. I even had earplugs in yesterday morning for an activity and when I took them out then the canals of my ears where they sat hurt, but no burning pain or fullness which normally follows noise insults.

I have TMJ and I believe that the inflammation from my setback has been exacerbated my clenching. It's especially bad when I wake up in the morning most days and this was the same way before I had improvement last time. I'm back to having trouble sleeping on either of my ears because they hurt and the right one clicks (something that developed after an ear surgery) more when I sleep on it. This whole ordeal is just so exhausting.

Thanks for your reply. I will look into the products you mentioned. I didn't really choose Peltor to be begin with out of a preference, just that they are so prevalent. The only ones I bought expressly because of reputation were the X5.

 

Yeah every hyperacusis sufferer says to get the X5. I mean they do block the most noise but for the extra decibel it’s not worth the damn size and discomfort. They gave me eye problems from the pressure. I kept hitting them on stuff. I’m not a fan. Yeah careful with that TMJ stuff. Shit sucks man.

 

Are the Walker’s you have electric ones? The ones I see are 23 dB rated which is lower than any others I have. So I don’t know that they’ll work for me, but I was thinking of giving them a try. I need some more comfortable ones desperately right now.

 

These are from a local store. Pretty comfortable.