Dealing with Loud Noises and Hearing Protection

Despite having had bad tinnitus for 3.5 years now, I still get hung up on so many details about this miserable and mysterious condition. I'm utterly exhausted from nearly four years of constant stress from every single sound that glances off my inner ear membranes. Every sound that is louder than gentle speech or the muffled thock of my silenced Topre keyboard is met with great anxiety. Even with the strongest earplugs nestled snugly in their ear caves, the world sounds thunderous and overwhelming. I really can't audibly distinguish between dangerous and harmless volume levels anymore, though I know, logically, many things that should or should not be. I know a train horn in close proximity or the siren of an oncoming ambulance should be avoided, but what about the crashing of shopping carts in the cart carousel or the dog barking inside the veterinary office? What about the dropping of a fork in the sink or a child enthusiastically speaking in an elevated tone?

I really don't know anymore. After all I've experienced, I'm more confused than ever. My tinnitus has gotten progressively worse in the infinitesimal amount of time I've suffered from it - seemingly too quickly. I've worn earplugs every single time I have left the house within this period, though I have tried many different types and various ratings of protection. I've found out the hard way that some weren't enough, yet some should have been but evidently were not.

What am I getting at, though? Well, I have a very specific question regarding another event of sonic onslaught that occurred earlier today, but I'm also just wondering what others have experienced and learned throughout their journey... I'm all ears, so to speak.

As to my question... I was caught off guard earlier today in a public restroom that I was unfamiliar with. I normally try to stop at places that don't have hand dryers, but this time out, I was in strange territory. Needless to say, as I was entering the facilities and before I could even scope out the situation, I was hit with the abrasive roar of a hand dryer about 2 to 3 feet from where I stood. I panicked about how to escape and sort of froze in place. Thankfully, the person didn't use the hand dryer for more than a few seconds. I've tried brushing off the unpleasant experience as non-threatening, but my anxiety is getting the best of me nonetheless.

I wear an Apple Watch to help track and evaluate situations. It isn't always accurate, as being on my wrist sometimes causes it to brush up against things or become exposed to harsher volumes than what my ears are actually experiencing, such as running faucets or wind blowing into the microphone. However, I think today's situation was recorded without any interference.


(Click to view full-size)

Highlighted in red, you can see the moment of noise exposure. It was about 88 dBa for possibly no more than 5 seconds. I was wearing 1 of 1 Custom (ACS Custom for those outside the US) custom molded earplugs with the Pro26 filters inserted.

Here is the attenuation chart for these specific filters (and here's a link to the full spec sheet):



Should I worry? My tinnitus is spiked, but it always spikes when I leave the house, so I really have no idea what's to come.

How many decibels was I actually exposed to with the earplugs in - 64 dBa? More than that? Is the math just 88 minus ~24 (taking the lowest rating on the attenuation chart - 24.2 dB at 1 kHz)? Does the attenuation decrease as the exposure level increases? Is there a hard cutoff? The spec says these are good up to 110 dB. Is that just because that keeps the exposure under 85-90 dB?

What would be the loudest environment that my brittle ears could survive in with these particular filters? I had these same earplugs and filters in when I was exposed to an impact driver last December. I found out they were not sufficient protection in that situation.

I've checked that these filters provide at least 15 dB of protection with the NIOSH tester, which can be found here, but I don't know how much more protection they are actually providing beyond this and the attenuation chart above.

 

The static in my less bad ear has been louder the last couple of days. Either I'm paying too much attention to it, or it is actually louder. It's such a small increment, but it's been bothering me. Just sounds harsher.

Well, tonight I went to the fast food drive-thru because tomorrow is grocery day. As I had my car window down to pay, the loudest sports bike I've ever heard in my life took off from the stoplight on the highway about 100-200 yards away. I've had my fair share of bad experiences with loud motorcycles, but this was so loud it felt painful even with my earplugs in. The cashier at the window was even startled and we couldn't hear each other shouting at one another.

Amazing luck. I should buy a lottery ticket.

 

I wish there was a definitive answer here, but in my experience, all sounds can become damaging or raise tinnitus, and the ringing has no limit. People think I'm crazy to say such a thing, but many who have been homebound 24/7 for years now might agree. As soon as I heard the tinnitus in quiet October 2021, I wished I had changed my life to be terrified of sound and religiously stayed in quiet as much as humanly possible.

No noise is worth this hell I am in. I'm amazed how nonchalantly most people brush these conditions as no big deal. I suspect they have baby ringing & think that that's as bad as it can get, so they want a to macho-man you for being a wussy. Now I'm stuck inside and sounds outside 100 to 200 yards away cut through my ears, even with double hearing protection. 100 dB aliens scream/jet airplanes go off in my head/ears. This is worse than being paralyzed, I feel.

All the audiologists I saw said normal sounds cannot make tinnitus worse, but many of us have found out the hard way that they don't know jack squat.

I hope you can tailor your life so that it doesn't get worse.

I am at a deathly level. Life is hard to curb.

 

Hi, @kingsfan. I barely talk above a whisper when the earplugs are in. I would say never shout with earplugs in. For fast food, I'd order on an app and have minimal interaction at the drive-thru. It's been a while for that, though. The mics are just too loud. I should just avoid that loud exposure and risk!

Best to you.

 

Yes, I believe this as well. I would just like to understand where my personal limits lie so I can work within that boundary. But there appears to be no hard threshold.

For instance, a few months ago, I was subjected to an impact wrench while walking through an auto mechanic shop to their office. I was wearing my usual earplugs, but the tinnitus in my left ear immediately worsened while my right ear remained unchanged. Fast-forward to a few days ago, the instance I described above, where I encountered the automatic hand dryer for about 5 seconds. My left ear has been unfazed, but my right ear has worsened significantly.

The impact wrench was certainly much louder than the hand dryer. I was wearing the same earplugs in both instances. Perhaps it's the type of sound. My right ear has nasty static, so maybe broadband noise is more damaging than the pure tones in my left ear. But I also have static in my left ear. It's just not as severe as my right, but it was unaffected in that ear on both occasions.

So:

• Impact Wrench: I have worsened pure tones and ultra-high-pitched hissing in my left ear, but static in my right ear is unaffected.

• Automatic Hand Dryer: I have worsened static in my right ear, and hissing and pure tones in my left ear are unaffected.

No, you always speak the truth. I always resisted staying home through the first couple of years, but I now stay in most of the time. It's just that when I leave the house, even though I try my hardest to be careful, something eventually gets me. The last two times, I could have prevented them, but I have attention problems, and I forget to prepare before entering certain situations.

My regret from the first time I experienced heightened tinnitus back in 2020 was not getting solid custom earplugs right away. I think I'm starting to realize that filtered musician plugs haven't been enough. They're alright for riding in the car, but not enough to prevent acoustic trauma from truly excessive noise exposures.

If I'd gone the solid custom earplug route, I may still only have hissing in my ears and not the pure tones, ultra-high-frequency hissing, and static mess I deal with now.

If I had just a single tinnitus sound, I think I would be okay. It's dealing with so many all at once that it is really difficult for me now. I already had a troubled relationship with noise before all of this. I loved loud music but also required complete silence to perform any cognitive tasks. I definitely had and, of course, still have misophonia.

I hope you find some respite.

I've definitely shouted from time to time with my earplugs in and regularly have conversations as well. Mine are custom molded, and while they do have occlusion, it's not nearly as bad as universal fit earplugs. I don't have much issue with the speakers at drive-thru's, but I do only crack my window until I am confident of the volume of the speaker. I also do order online most of the time, but I still have to communicate that I'm picking up an order at the speaker. I also keep my windows up at all times unless I'm receiving my order, but despite all these careful procedures, I was still exposed.

 

Well, no, maybe I take back what I said about only my right ear being affected from the other day because my left ear now has a really intense static/hiss today as well. Whew, this is causing a lot of panic, anxiety, and dread. I’m not sure how to deal with this and continue functioning in society.

 

I don't know, man. Shouting and yelling have been removed from my existence. I used to be the loud and social guy in the group.

Even without any earplugs in, or with custom earplugs in, you don't feel your own voice harms you? How about eating? Chips are like firecrackers in my head.

Maybe you aren't aware it's hurting you? Like yelling into a drive-thru and having them yell back at you. That's just damage happening. Do custom earplugs make that a safe exchange? Foam earplugs definitely don't.

 

Sorry to hijack the thread, but can you share a link with more information about these? I got a pair of custom-molded earplugs with filters. I did not realize there were fully solid ones.

 

For example these: https://1of1custom.com/collections/custom-ear-plugs/products/total-block

 

Yes, those are the ones. Any company that produces custom molded earplugs will have a solid version. Some notable companies are: 1 of 1 (ACS), Westone, Sensaphonics, Ultimate Ears, and JH Audio.

No, I don't feel that my voice harms me. Shouting feels louder and more harmful without earplugs than with them, but it does depend on the type of earplug:

• Double or triple flange: No way I'm yelling in these.
• Earasers (hearing aid-type ear tips): If I can get them deeply inserted, maybe.
• Custom molded: Yes it feels fine, but I won't do it often.
• Foam: No issue at all.

Foam earplugs are the end-all be-all of reducing occlusion. Perhaps you aren't inserting them deep enough? I go all the way until I can barely grasp enough with my fingernails to pull them out. Perhaps you have a really deep voice. That seems to be the worst for occlusion. I talk more from my throat/head so my voice isn't very boomy.

I have only given up pita chips and really thick potato chips. I can eat tortilla chips and pretzel thins without any issue, though, and I wouldn't eat them with my earplugs in.

Maybe I am slowly deteriorating my acoustic nerve through talking with earplugs, but I have no other way of communicating when I am in louder unpredictable environments. I only leave the house once a week, sometimes twice a week. I won't risk removing them to talk, and I do not know American Sign Language (ASL).

 

Members of my wife's family are cops with loud, commanding voices. Her brother retired and is now a football coach. They only have one volume, and it is way too loud for me.

I usually relax in a corner during family gatherings and try to guess what people are saying when they talk to me. I then point to my ears and they remember I have earplugs in.

It's a lot of fun. /s

 

When people raise their voices more because there's a group they are trying to talk over, or there's a sudden loud squall or squawk laugh, it's even worse.

 

While I do not doubt that accidental noise exposures can make tinnitus worse, I don’t believe that a few seconds at 88 dB will do any sort of permanent damage to you. I also believe that constantly hyper-protecting your ears can certainly result in increased central gain, hypersensitivity, and anxiety—all of which are known to exacerbate the perception of tinnitus.

In my view, there is a balance between protecting against real acoustic risks (e.g., don’t go to clubs or sporting events, wear earplugs at restaurants, etc.) and hypersensitivity creating exactly the thing you’re trying to avoid.

 

I thought the same, even though I would try to avoid these lesser "loud" noises if possible. But things still haven't settled after two weeks (has it been longer?). There's just a loud, raw static hiss over my old tinnitus. I'm assuming this was always quieter in the background before, but it has now increased beyond the volume of what used to be my more prominent tones.

Maybe it will go down eventually, but it is troubling that it is still stuck around. It's absolutely devastating. It's definitely more difficult to hear over top of all the white noise, and the high-pitched nature of it gets worse with background sound. It's not reactive or anything; it's just that those high frequencies can't be masked and cut through everything. Going out to run errands spikes it even worse.

Or maybe cumulative damage caught up with me, and the hand dryer incident was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

 

I had yet another mishap again today. I was at the gas station and decided to try the car wash there since it was cheaper than the one I usually use. You have to use a little kiosk before entering to select the wash you want and pay. Well, the thing has voice instruction, which was turned to extraordinary levels. I was not anticipating it. The car wash I usually go to is silent, so I forgot some aren't. I don't know why it needed to be so loud. I've attached the decibel levels from my Apple Watch. All the sound went into my left ear, which is spiked now and feels a little full, but it's hard to tell. The sensation is very minimal, so I don't know if it's my anxiety or not.

The volume fluctuated between 81 and 92 dBA. I was wearing my 1of1 Custom Pro16 earplugs, for which I had already posted the attenuation chart above.

 

I'm so sorry to hear you had another noise incident on May 25th. Did the original spike from April 26 ever go back down?