PSA: Ear protection

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I had quite the scare this week and figured I'd relay the story for those who may not realize what a dramatic change hearing can have on your life.

First off, I was never big on ear protection. In the very rare instances would I don any kind of ear protection. I've stood at the starting line of NHRA races and jet turbine cars where the sound was enough to make your heart skip.

I like music and I like loud music. I've worked on my car running an air ratchet inside of a wheel well.

Still through all that I've had great hearing even though as I've gotten older I always had concerns about the amount of noise I introduce myself to.

Last Thanksgiving my wife wanted a cat door put in. I grabbed the router and went to work. The door is in a recess so its boxed in on all 4 sides. I used the router no more than 60 seconds in total. When I got done I had a ringing in the ears, nothing too bad, figured it would go away.

It did go away but 3 days later came back so bad I could not sleep. Tinnitus as its referred to is permanent if it is hearing loss related. Meaning if the router had damaged my hearing I was stuck with this.

I could not sleep for 3 nights and that was with white noise/music playing to mask the ringing on the 2nd and 3rd night.

Thankfully I am the king of coincidence. I went for a hearing test Tuesday and passed with flying colors even though I had ear wax impacted on the ear drum. Today I went to an ENT who told me the two events were unrelated and the was was pushing on the ear drum causing the issue.

Still it was a very rough week and not something I want to ever repeat or think about having to deal with again. I still have the ringing, constant in the left ear, on and off in the right but the wax was worse in the left than right. Have to do drops for 5 days and they'll remove it.

This could have gone either way and reading on Tinnitus is no fun and as I said it was the mother of coincidences that they happened within days of one another.

Just something to keep in mind because you have no idea how much after the fact you realize that something so short in duration can alter your life.

I'll never be without hearing protection again. After using my new router the first time in an open garage I posted that I needed to pick up some protection. I ended up getting it on Friday but figured it was such a short period of time on Thursday no big deal.

Something to keep in mind.
 
Thanks for posting this! I used to not worry much about my hearing, however I recently read an article about a man who killed himself because he developed tinnitus while watching a rock concert. Since then, I have become much more concerned with the noise that I am exposed to.
 
Drastic to say the least. I live with tinnitus. I plan to continue. It isn't the end of the world. I can still tell good audio from bad. If I were a young whippersnapper, I'd probably read this PSA and say, "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah." Now I'd say heed the warnings, think about what you're doing, have fun but don't overdo it. If you don't want to strut around the nightclub with orange thingies sticking in your ears, at least do it around motors, power tools, etc.
I could surely dictate more from the voice of experience, but I don't want anyone to miss the message.
 
Anyone who's into audio should look after their ears. And should already own an SPL meter. I wear hearing protection when I use gas-powered or electric tools, including a vacuum cleaner. Apart from sparing my hearing, it makes using tools much less stressful. I think I read someplace that because of the stress factor, unpleasant loud noises do more damage than pleasant ones (like enjoyable music).

Some hearing aid stores offer free hearing tests; it's not a bad idea to get one if you haven't been tested since elementary school (ask for a copy of the results... it's not hard to interpret the "frequency response" plot).
 
This is quite a good site with an online test that displays results as a graph but please remember it is not the same as using proper calibrated equipment and it also depends a lot on the phones you use,

Equal loudness contours and audiometry - Test your own hearing

The last time I tried this test, I used high quality in-the-ear canal type ear phones. I could not hear 12Khz or higher at all. I barely heard 8Khz. I have tinnitus and have had it for years now. I don't know what caused this, since I don't think I've exposed myself to really loud noises very often. I did use a router without hearing protection exactly once, when I was about 16. I went to maybe 2 or so rock concerts in my youth. I don't get it. I can't imagine driving a convertible car with the top down is all that dangerous to hearing (I used to do that a lot). :scratch1:
 
If you've used an SPL meter in the car, you may measure 100 dB of road and wind noise. Some of that noise may be harmless low frequencies. The real danger is that you turn the music up to hear it over the noise. I wince when I think of the hours of driving I did in my old pickup at freeway speeds with Slayer cranked on the 6x9s. Now I wear earplugs, which makes for more pleasant driving.

Even bicycling or walking can be noisy; I've measured over 100 dB at the road side from passing trucks. Transit is another situation where it's tempting to turn the music up too loud. Canal phones are a good idea; it wouldn't be overkill to wear over-the-ear protection as well.

Hammering nails must be pretty loud, and contains a lot of high-frequency content. Cap guns, firecrackers, gunshots. Depending on how sheltered your childhood was.
 
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The last time I tried this test, I used high quality in-the-ear canal type ear phones. I could not hear 12Khz or higher at all. I barely heard 8Khz. I have tinnitus and have had it for years now. I don't know what caused this, since I don't think I've exposed myself to really loud noises very often. I did use a router without hearing protection exactly once, when I was about 16. I went to maybe 2 or so rock concerts in my youth. I don't get it. I can't imagine driving a convertible car with the top down is all that dangerous to hearing (I used to do that a lot). :scratch1:

Before you draw any conclusions you would have to at least repeat the test on a different PC and with different phones, and preferably with an audio generator too. Dare we ask what age bracket you are in ;)

I have read somewhere (motoring supplements in weekend papers I think) that noise from ragtops and noise bikers endure can be a real issue.
 
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If you've used an SPL meter in the car, you may measure 100 dB of road and wind noise. Some of that noise may be harmless low frequencies. The real danger is that you turn the music up to hear it over the noise. I wince when I think of the hours of driving I did in my old pickup at freeway speeds with Slayer cranked on the 6x9s. Now I wear earplugs, which makes for more pleasant driving.

Even bicycling or walking can be noisy; I've measured over 100 dB at the road side from passing trucks. Transit is another situation where it's tempting to turn the music up too loud. Canal phones are a good idea; it wouldn't be overkill to wear over-the-ear protection as well.

Hammering nails must be pretty loud, and contains a lot of high-frequency content. Cap guns, firecrackers, gunshots. Depending on how sheltered your childhood was.

I have tried that with an SPL meter and was alarmed to find very high levels even at low speed in what is a quiet car but as you say, most would be LF noise.

Percussive sound is by far the most damaging as the ear has not got time to respond. If the sound has a slower rise time then the muscles in the inner ear relax and allow less acoustic transmission from the ear drum and connecting bones into the cochlea... a sort automatic peak limiter.
 
Thanks to the OP for a good reminder topic...as noted previously it is unfortunate that at the age our hearing is best our egos predominate and the illusion of immortality overrides common sense. I used my Ratshack meter to measure all of my loud power tools from the operator's head position. Unsurprisingly routers and planer are screamers at 100dB+. Surprisingly the next worst tools in my shop were two shopvacs in the mid-90dB range. I tagged each tool above 80dB with a sticker and wear protection whenever operating them.

I also have tinnitus from exposures when I was much younger to industrial noise (auto industry heavy stamping plant) and of course rock concerts. I agree with Sofaspud...it's certainly an annoyance but hard to imagine it driving one to suicide...yikes!
 
Just a quick follow up.

3 days with baby oil and its getting better until they remove the wax.

The ENT was surprised that they gave me a hearing test with wax but considering how high I scored I should score top percentages once they remove it.

Tinnitus is something different to everyone. I slept the past few nights no problem with it.

For some people it an annoyance, for others it can be life changing. Everyone has a different level of noise. Mine was high pitched and moderately loud. I could not lay on that ear at all the first few nights.

I just did the tie rods on our car and wore ear protection while running the impact and the air compressor.

For those who have tinnitus without hearing loss there are a lot of causes and treatments. The last time I had tinnitus was starting to visit a chiropractor. As they went through the adjustments it came, got worse, then got better, and disappeared.

Pink/White noise does help. Last night we just left the air filter running in the bedroom. Even a decently loud blower fan for a furnace will mask it depending on how bad it is.
 
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Another follow up.

It has been an amazing rough month. After removing the ear wax the tinnutis got WORSE.

I went to a tinnutus expert...I won't disparage the word used but I was not too impressed with the answer. I had a 2nd hearing test and scored even higher than the last.

However the noise was present and way worse than before. I really thought I had screwed myself up especially since I was told "its permanent, going to have to live with it"

Thankfully I decided not to listen and went back to my ENT. Had a 3rd hearing test and this time I scored top of the charts which really confused him. He put me on a steroid for 5 days plus Flonase.

A local hospital runs a tinnutis program which is supposedly one of the best in the world. I scheduled an appointment with them but they suggested I see someone for neuromuscular workup before going in.

I must be the luckiest person in the world. Went to see this person and her thoughts were since my scores were so high on the hearing test that when using the router, in the position I was using it, going slowly, precisely, etc I created a lot of muscle tension in the neck.

I was 4" off from ear to ankle and my front neck muscles were incredibly tight.

She worked on me for about 25 minutes and that night the noise was down 70-80 percent. I did a bunch of stretches and other work recommended and the following night the noise was gone until I laid down.

Today after more stretching it is positional. Sitting up straight dead silent, laying down minor noise, maybe 5 percent of what it was. Go back for a few more treatments over the next few weeks which I'm confident will fix the problem.

Putting me back in alignment overall should alleviate it totally. My aversion to noise has gone away too, I was extremely sensitive to anything over 80db especially in the lower frequencies.

Still I'll never be without ear protection again, this was one rough experience and although I'll probably be better off in the long run correcting the neck issue better ways to learn a lesson than this one.

For those who continue to have tinnutis there is a new treatment out which claims a 91 percent success rate. Right now there is TRT, or Tinnutis Retraining Therapy but it requires 18 months of therapy and nearly 24 hour per day environment where there is some noise, along with psychological training.

The new method is 2-4 hours per day for 6 months for a complete reduction in noise. Same concept, they train your brain to not hear the noise but now its done passively and in a much shorter period of time.

You have no idea how important silence is until its gone.
 
OK, thanks for the information. I don't know if there's anything they can do about me. I've had this for years now. I go to a chiropractor once per month as well as getting Rolfed monthly but it doesn't help this. My wife is trained in Crano-sacral, so she's treating me sometimes as well. I don't expect much. My ears are clean...
 
OK, thanks for the information. I don't know if there's anything they can do about me. I've had this for years now. I go to a chiropractor once per month as well as getting Rolfed monthly but it doesn't help this. My wife is trained in Crano-sacral, so she's treating me sometimes as well. I don't expect much. My ears are clean...

My problems with it started with a chiropractor.

TRT is supposed to work on anyone, and this new treatment is just a faster adaptation of it.

The concept is the brain ignores all kinds of noise all day long. Blood flow, heart beat, movement, etc...so once they find the specific frequency they train your brain to ignore it like any other body sound.

I bought an app for the iPhone which mimics the idea and lets you go through the adaptation phase.

It would work, for 5-6 minutes at a time. You find the frequency, listen to it for 20 minutes, then you find another sound, a white noise sound, waterfalls, etc that mask the tinnutis normally.

Then the program merges the two together. This is not the technique I inquired about but its close in concept.

Worked good enough for me for $2.99 to see how it could be effective.

The way my problem was explained to me is the muscles were so tight in the neck from being out of alignment that it causes minor ischemia's in the ear, which leads to fluid and toxic build up. That irritates the nerves and the noise starts.

Relieving that pressure and stress would clean the area out and return to normal function.

Last night and today it is not even perceptible.

Good luck with it, if its something that bothers you I'd investigate it more.
 
My wife is also working on my neck starting today. I do have tight muscles there and it hurts like hell when she stretches them. I don't expect results right away of course, since this has been going on for years.

What's the name of the app? I'm sure there's an iPad version, I hope?

It seems stronger in my right ear though.
 
My wife is also working on my neck starting today. I do have tight muscles there and it hurts like hell when she stretches them. I don't expect results right away of course, since this has been going on for years.

What's the name of the app? I'm sure there's an iPad version, I hope?

It seems stronger in my right ear though.

It's called iTinnutis. It will work on the iPad too, just be really small on the screen.

The Neuromuscular person I see said 50 percent of people respond to treatment, she had a woman come in after having it for 3 years and within a few sessions saw massive improvements.

I also took a Tinnutis supplement that was highly recommended by several doctors to improve blood flow in the ear. I normally am not too keen on that kind of stuff but the local doctors and hospitals carry it. Also has a decent effectiveness rate depending on what is causing it.

However I've only been taking it 10 days and pretty much everything I read is it takes at least 60 days to have an impact so I doubt that is it. It was called Archer's Tinnutis Formula. I picked it up at at the local Henry Ford Hospital here in Michigan.

Mine was audible in the left ear except with masking 80 percent of the time, 20 percent of the time it was audible no matter what. Right ear only when I laid down on it.

Strangely enough in the room for the hearing test I heard nothing with a complete absence of sound.

What is encouraging even more so for me is I'll move my head a certain way and get a REALLY LOUD sharp ringing in one ear or the other. Takes about 5 minute to fade away. Something is moving around in there.

Now I do not hear it at all, lying down it is so faint I have to strongly concentrate on it.

If its not hearing loss related then its just a hunt for what helps it. From what I've read and learned there is a way to treat most every cause but it could be 20 different things causing it.

If it is hearing loss related then TRT or the other program seem to be the only way to go although there are experimental surgeries being done but nothing concrete.

I hated the idea of living with this and have spent a month straight educating myself about it as much as possible.

BTW the guy who invented the TRT treatment is in Virginia. He has a Tinnutis clinic there. I'll have to find the link, the problem is TRT also stands for Testosterone Replacement Therapy and I can find the article I was reading before.

[Edit] Found it: http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/cl...alservices/for-patients/patient_tinnitus-page

Here is the other article http://www.ivanhoe.com/science/story/2009/02/536a.html I read another that showed complete recovery from similar treatment. If the problem continues for any reason I have an appointment with the Doc in that article on Jan 27th.
 
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I guess I've trained myself. The vast majority of the time I'm not aware of the tinnitus. The worst times are when I'm in the presence of another constant droning sound, and then I tend to block out all sounds. Making me virtually deaf, or close to.
Gory details section: I had bacterial meningitis and it ruptured my eardrum. I remember going to the ENT surgeon and I could see the video screen while I lay on one side. She took a tiny camera/vacuum gadget and cleaned way into my ear canal. Dried blood-looking crud. Did the other ear too. Pretty sure they pierced that eardrum. There was talk of brain and/or heart surgery. Meningitis is some wicked stuff. I feel lucky. I'll cope with the tinnitus. I've otherwise recovered fully.
 
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