Will Foam Earplugs Damage My Hearing?

Bit of an odd question but I have noticed a teeny bit of pain upon insertion of the things -- just wondering if that's a sign I should stop. Note the pain doesn't exist when they're in.

I wear them for about 2 hours a day, four days a week while on the bus -- one hour to my school, when I get there I remove them -- and one hour back, I slip in a clean pair.

I don't think I've experienced any hearing loss.

 

I see your tinnitus is fairly new. Have you seen an ENT for a check up about it yet? I would definitely suggest one now since you are having pain in your ear when inserting earplugs. It may be an ear wax problem and nothing serious, but you should still get checked regardless. Have you watched videos about proper insertion of ear plugs?

 

Yes. The ENT gave me the usual round of hearing tests , micro-sucked out some wax, and it went away for a few hours? Then came back lol.

I haven't watched any videos but I did read the back of the box a few times.

 

A word of caution for the future about micro suction, some people on here have reported their tinnitus getting worse due to micro suction. I'm not saying that happened to you or caused any problems for you, but I suggest avoiding that in the future and getting wax manually removed by an ENT.

Check out youtube on how to properly insert them. You may be doing something that is causing some ear pain. Is the pain in your ear canal or ear drum? If it is in the canal, you may have a swimmers ear infection. If it is pain on the ear drum, you may be pressing too hard and causing some pressure against your ear drum. This is just my opinion, please see the ENT as soon as you can if the pain persist after watching the proper way to insert the ear plugs.

 

I've seen bad things about manual removal too, honestly.
Though funnily enough she used a curette on me as well.

 

Removing foam earplugs too rapidly can create a vacuum effect which can be uncomfortable and has been reported to cause tinnitus. I always take at least 10 seconds per plug on removal, pulling back the earlobe or the cartiledge next to the ear canal, at the same time as firmly grasping the end of the earplug and very slowly and almost imperceptibly starting to pull with a twisting action. If it doesn't budge, change position and try again. Eventually it will slowly slide out with no popping or vacuum effect.

I think this more of a concern for those of us with inverted eardrums and ETD problems than for others. It may seem crazy that we have to talk about such things in this detail, but such is the world we inhabit!