Pain from Earplugs

I have recently more often had pain accompany my hyperacusis with my recent setback. It is a dull ache that comes and goes. I believed it was just related to sounds, but I'm realising that that inserting and having ear plugs inserted makes it worse.

This is the first time that I feel that I do not want the plug in my ear, and I have been using ear plugs a long time.

Have others experienced this? I guess something is off with the eardrum, and if that is case, can a doctor do anything?

 

I have experieced this too. Having ear plugs in for a longer duration (1+ hours) spikes both my T and H a bit.

 

Yep, I'm worse after wearing them. My right ear has been getting fleeting T before and deeper pains. It's never done that before. I'm discontinuing plugs for now.

<3 my muffs though.

 

Where is this pain located? You might consider not inserting your earplugs as deep as you do now.

 

Hard to say. In the ear somewhere..

I recently tried Hearos (foam plugs) and beleive they might be the cause. I had some wax on one that i pulled out. One i also pulled out too fast I think.

Could also be from my recent minor noise spike last weeekend.

Just woke up, and its still there

 

If it is the skin in the ear canal, then consider trying
https://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight-Disposable-Earplugs-without/dp/B00O9QV7US/
They don't last as long as 3M 1100 plugs, and they probably have lower noise reduction (even though they report noise reduction of 30 dB, and 3M 1100 report 29 dB), but there is nothing out there that is more comfortable and less intrusive. When you wear these, it is easy to forget that you are wearing earplugs.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight-Honeywell-Disposable-LPF-1/dp/B000RMFGGY
is a better link to the same product. Here you can see that the plugs are being sold as "low pressure", and this claim is certainly true. They work by sticking to the inside of your ears, so when it comes time to pull them out, be careful and move slowly.

 

Thanks, will buy these. Are there any ear plugs that allow air to move in and out when inserted? (these create suction)

I'm having so much pain right now. Not sure what the cause is..Maybe i've just developed true noxacusis on top of my regular H :/

 

I don't know of any plugs that would do that.

 

Consider also custom earplugs that are molded to your ears. They should be the most comfortable.

When I wear earplugs for extended periods of time, my ear canal gets sore... it's really uncomfortable.

 

I hope these howard leights help.
I wear the soft silicone ear putty, they are better than anything elese Ive tried.
But I can still get pressure pain and amped up volume if I wear them too long. and just this week for first time in 2yrs H. from wearing plugs too long.
Ibuprofen takes the pain n pressure away.

 

Its hard to be sure whether earplugs are correctly inserted unless they are custom made. Foam earplugs can be wrinkled without your knowing. Even if earplugs are correctly inserted the extended use somehow builds up pressure inside the ears. Earmuffs are better in this sense, do not produce so much pressure. It is also possible that the use of earplugs or earmuffs make you hear more through the bone, through bone conduction, and for this you may feel pressure or feel weird with sound after removing hearing protection.

 

An update:
I went to an ENT and he checked my eardrum and identified that i had low pressure in the ear (I did valsvalva and the eardrum did not move). I'm guessing thats why I get pain, especially when pushing in the ear plug.

He recommended me to do valsalva many times/day to get rid of it and to use nose spray. Anybody had the same?

 

If you do this maneuver, at least try to be as gentle as you can. Search this forum, you can really hurt your ear and get a T spike if you do it too forcefully.

 

Pressure eventually will go away. Try to be careful with vasalva and nose sprays..

 

Earplugs made my hyperacusis worse. Made me more sensetive to sound

 

Check out Doc's Proplugs, the vented type. These are very easy to put in/take out quickly and have no suction. The downside is that they only offer about 5 dB protection in the vocal range (they are designed to make voices audible), but they offer like 20 dB in the upper frequency range. I have had two "suction" incidents in the last three days on the same ear (first was from suction from pushing tragus in to block ear--never would have expected that; second was from an earplug that was deep and very difficult to remove gently) and so I am giving up on them for the moment and will stick to proplugs for anything truly loud.

 

Hi,

Read your other post as well. I have mostly been using custom musician earplugs, and just started using foam again since I wrote this post. So... I've realised that Foam is waaaay bother in terms of protection, however, they also increase suction risk. I now take them out very carefully and so far its been working well when I "lift" the ear while pulling them out.

There are custom earplugs for industrial use that attenuate quite well and my next step is to get them and use for "everyday" purposes as they are easy to take out without the suction risk. The Foam I will use when I need max protection.

PS. 5db would not be enough... was that a typo?

 

What are the industrial earplugs you are referring to? I would be interested in learning more about those.

And yes, < 5 dB is correct for low frequency range ( under 2 Khz) on the vented Doc's. They really only attenuate high frequency content. I have custom silicon musicians Etymotics for gigs/music events, but they are SUCH a pain to get in an out (even without suction). You really have to ram them in their to get full protection, so I will reserve those for that specific purpose.

I will still be carrying foam with me as I always have since they are so effective, but I'm going to try and be much more conservative with them (today I vacuumed without them, a first in several years!)

 

In Swedish... but you can see the graph and pictures:

Musician:
https://bellman.com/sv/partners/produktsupport/horselskydd/formgjutna-horselskydd/bellman-er/

Industrial:
https://bellman.com/sv/partners/produktsupport/horselskydd/formgjutna-horselskydd/bellman-ch/

The line with most attenutation is "Foam Earplug". The other are variants of different filters that one can use.

The brand has English website as well but not sure about their coverage. I'm sure there are equivalents by other manufacturers close to you.

 

There are several types of foam, and foam is the best type in terms of noise reduction. However, those foam earplugs that get stuck and produce suction should be avoided.

 

Few thoughts....

I would not vacuum without ear plugs. My vacuum is 85 to 87 db, and folks without our problems should not be exposed to those noise levels.

Try several brands of ear plugs. I like the slow release ones as they are more comfortable once in. I like the Howard leight max 1 and Mack's ultra soft. I also find changing styles helps to give the ear rest from swooshing the same spot day after day.

Be careful taking the plugs out. Pull them downward first to break the seal so suction does not get applied to the eardrum on removal.

The musician earplugs have a filter on them to allow sound in at lower levels. I think they allow air to go in as well. I like them for situations where I need an earplug, but not overprotective so I can still hear ambient noise.

 

Presumably this won't be an issue unless you're planning on vacuuming for hours on end (I know there is some argument/hypothesis about H sufferers being more prone to damage from lower dB levels, but I would like to see some concrete data). For the record, my vacuum peaks at about 78 dB. Still annoying, but I wasn't doing it for more than maybe 10 mins.

But thanks for earplug suggestions. I may need to try a different softer type. Currently using the slightly harder green cone types.

 

My vacuuming goes on for about an hour. Anything above 85 should be protected if I was employed per OSHA regs, so I figure to do it at home. You are correct that the 85 db noise does not supposedly cause damage in terms of NIHL until you hit 8 hours of exposure.

However, in Europe the lower threshold of protection is to start at 80 db, and the OSHA regs are from the early 1980s. They also accepted that 8% of users could follow the OSHA regs and still get some damage.

Also realize that healing of T is not the same as primary prevention of NIHL. Some folks around here have spiked at lower than 80 db noise exposure, and I try not to take chances with my healing process.