Singing with Earplugs

Hi guys, long time viewer but my first time posting. I am 25 years old and currently 5 months into my Tinnitus. I believe it has been brought on from noise damage as I played without ear protection in a loud 80s electro band nearly every weekend for about 2 years. However I do have issues with my ears clicking when I swallow and my jaw also clicking (so it could be ETD or TMJ? I'm so lost at the moment I can't even self diagnose myself!). This stress along with a 9 month waiting list to see an ENT doctor hasn't been the easiest but I feel like I am getting there slowly.

The reason I post today is a question to the singers out there currently suffering. I would really like to get back to performing with my band as it was a huge part of my life as well as a good source of extra income. I have had some custom earplugs fitted from Minerva which take out 30dB of sound. Is this the best protection that I should be using? I see a lot of people use 20dB or 25dB as the norm but would the 30dB be any better? I decided on the 30dB as it is mainly recommended for drummers and seeing as I stand so close to the drum kit when I am performing and I want the MOST protection that is available I thought it would be a better option to go for. Does anybody suffer with the occlusion effect when they are singing with earplugs and does this make your tinnitus any worse? I'm quite new to the science of all this so any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/positive-story-about-a-singer-with-tinnitus.7128/

 

I have already read this a few months ago but alas it does not really answer any of my questions sadly.

 

First off, I don't perform music so I'm not sure how much this will all help, but I got tinnitus from a really loud gig. I can't comment on whether or not your tinnitus will increase playing music. For some it does and for some it doesn't (I wouldn't be able to handle it). But regarding the occlusion effect, I find custom earplugs reduce it quite a bit compared to cheap earplugs. It's still there, but I think you'd get used to it.

best/

 

Thanks for the response. Do you think that the occlusion effect could make the tinnitus worse? I fear if I'm singing for an extended period of time that it could worsen it.

 

Personally I don't think so. I wear them all day and have to speak semi-loudly over the work truck and haven't noticed anything from it. I know singing is different though, so hopefully other musicians can chime in.

 

Hi Mitch I started an identical thread a few days ago. Please come back on and let us know if you have an update. If be intrigued to know

 

Occlusion effect will hurt your ears ( permanently ) if you sing with earplugs. Of course, if you're lucky it may not happen very soon, but you can't know that beforehand. If you yell with ears unblocked, nothing will happen to your ears because of your own voice, but then you risk the damage from the instruments. I'm not a singer, but I give you the info I have. Don't put earplugs when you are about to sing, yell, go to the dentist. I'm afraid there's no possible , ears hurting -free option in this case. Still, many musicians don't give up on anything they did because of T. They play with fire in my opinion..but I can also understand how important music can be to those who make it, so the choice is only yours..

 

Thanks for the info. How do you know that this is true? Do you know someone that it's happened to? Not having a go, just curious.

I find that I can sing ok in them, without it hurting my ears, but only if I sing softly, about the same level as talking. I do have the ACS pro plugs, and they are advertised as 'for vocalists', as they reduce the oclussion effect by going deeper into the canal and have filters.

 

In-ear monitors, man! I can't find it right now, but there was a video of the whole Dorje band getting custom fitted monitors (Shure ones I'm pretty sure) and it supposedly helped with singing immensely. If you're worried about the whatever effect you could also wear external sound cancelling headphones on top of that - you're in an 80s electro band, you could pull anything off as part of the on-stage attire

 

A friend of mine who sings in a band also wears these. Might be worth giving it a try then. I'll look into it, cheers!

I'm not the 80's electro geezer though.. My genre was always 70's funk, with a bit of Latin thrown in there! But yeah you could pull off any kind of look in band like that as well!

 

In order to minimize the occlusion effect, custom earplugs should extend past the second bend in the ear canal. This reduces the vibration of the bony part of the ear canal, which is the cause of occlusion. See here for a better and more detailed explanation: http://hearinghealthmatters.org/hearthemusic/2012/deep-earmold-impressions/

I have emailed ACS Custom about this and they confirmed it for me. Also, see the third paragraph beneath "How do I find an audiologist?" here: http://acscustom.com/us/index.php/faq

It is important to explain this to the audiologist when getting the moulds done, as many of them are not aware of this and instead think that earplugs should be fit like hearing aids. I'm going to get another pair fitted, as I only learned this information after I had my first pair fitted incorrectly!

 

To cut the long story short..yes Well, I know that cause I spent at least first 6 months of my tinnitus life reading all I could about tinnitus, hearing, the way it works..I selected the worthy info from uncertain..I can't give you the proper links now, but they were scientific articles and not just a hearsay or opinions. Our ears have a way of protecting themselves from loud noise coming from inside of the skull , but they won't be able to do that if we plug the ears ( the sound inside will be exacerbated by 30 db, if I remember correctly ) . Anyway, it's easy to check - if you eat sth with your earplugs in, it will sound very loud already. I myself suspect that I might have gotten my t after spending many hours coughing and having earplugs in my ears at the same time ( cause prior to t I spent every night with earplugs in, so...) voila .