Piano Teacher Needs Some Advice on Ear Plugs

Hi everyone, this is my first post in this forum, so let me briefly introduce my situation first.

I am piano teacher and my T seems getting louder and more new sound, and also T appear in my other ear last month.

I got tinnitus in my right ear around 2012 while I was a student of piano tuning and classical music. My T gets stronger after listening to piano temporary. I stop tuning about a year after I develop my T and continue playing piano.

Around May 2016 my right ear feel fullness and numb as I was practicing a lot hours everyday that time on my (I think) over resonance piano, so I stop practicing for 2 weeks and luckily my ear feels better and T didn't get much different. After that I wear -15dB ear plugs every minutes when I practice at home.

And this year, Jan 2017, as mentioned above, my right ear get worse and T also appear in my left ear. I start to think I should wear earplugs when I am teaching because my work place is a tiny room that reflect sound right into my poor ears. But there are some problems, which makes me resist wearing earplugs in class in the past, is that when I wearing earplugs I can't hear subtle sound, which is quite important for me to hear it in classical music. I can't remember which brand of filter I am using, maybe Etymotic -15dB not for sure. I want to try more brands now.

Can anyone suggest which brand have the best quality filter? Also, I am so afraid my students or anyone to see me wearing earplugs, any suggestion on more invisble earplugs? Thanks.

 

You'll either have to wear earplugs, work with a quieter piano, or have tinnitus get louder. Each time the piano is being played while you don't have hearing protection the tinnitus is getting worse.

If you're worried about not being able to hear subtle sounds now you should definitely be worried about the tinnitus getting worse. From the stories I've heard people with tinnitus tend to have it get much worse when they continue to expose themselves to high decibels. It won't take X amount of years for it to double in volume. It will take months. How bad can it get? It can get worse than putting your head right next to a vacuum cleaner. You don't want to have that for the rest of your life.

Of course you should wear earplugs with students. Who cares if they see you wearing earplugs. Do you want your life ruined?

 

hi, I'm a music teacher and I play the piano all day. The piano is my desk. I use db downbeats plugs. They work well and they cannot be seen. I do speak to my students about taking care of their ears but I avoid getting into deep discussions about it. I have some children who do have hearing problems and I don't want to scare them. I do talk to them about not listening to loud music and being around loud sounds. I speak to them very seriously about it without scaring them. I have to be sensitive to the kids who already have hearing problems by not maiking them feel hopeless and scared. The plugs come with a nice case so you can keep them in your pocket so they are ready to use. all the best

 

You are right. My hearing is priceless I should protect it at all cost. Sometime I just think I'm not yet fully accept that I can't hear the piano playing with bare ears anymore.

 

Just check that DownBeat earplug. Looks much smaller that my ear plugs. Thanks for your advice Robert.

 

I would suggest that having your students see you wear earplugs is a good thing. You can help educate them about sound levels, hearing loss, and tinnitus.