Horrid Loud Ping Noise When Taking Earplugs Out — Created a Vacuum in Ear Canal?

[Allan1967]

I'm just back home from an event where there was a lot of children. I carry musicians earplugs (the plastic ones with two cups and a stem through them).

As I was going out of one room and into another I knew all theses kids were present and it was loud because of their chatting so I popped these in. Once I was away from the danger zone I went to take one of them out and it must have created a vacuum in my ear canal as I felt it pop and then my ear made a horrid loud ping noise, almost like the eardrum had been rattled. The bottom smallest cup was inverted, like a umbrella that's been sucked in.

The noise itself went away quickly and at this stage I can't tell if my tinnitus has spiked or there's any new noises as I hear a small variety throughout the day/night that come and go?

The warning is if you use these kind of plugs to make sure you get some air in first and could I have caused any damage? If it spikes when's the latest I'll know by?

I've taken a dose of magnesium citrate and B12, is there anything else I should do?

 

[Allan1967]

Up A&E at the minute. Need to know if they see any damage.

I am f**king sick of my life. Everything I try to do ends in disaster lately.

 

[Hariz Nonis]

I wore in ears before having my current issue. Will be interesting to know if this so-called vacuum seal does affect our hearing

 

[Allan1967]

No perforation that could be seen at hospital.

No lasting pain and no bleeding, can't tell with tinnitus as noises are always so varied in the frequency of appearance, frequency and number.

Would like to know when I can consider I passed the out of danger marker.

 

[Allan1967]

Need to vent... I'm ferking sick of my life... Every time I try to do something to make my life better it gets f**kin worse.

I buy a piano that was beautiful, an object that should have brought happiness and if screws the remainder of my life up.

Today I wear earplugs thinking it will help and it sends me to A&E for the afternoon.

It's like life doesn't want me here anymore, progressively doing more things that make me think wtf is going on.

 

[Bill Bauer]

The warning is if you use these kind of plugs to make sure you get some air in first and could I have caused any damage? If it spikes when's the latest I'll know by?

One time I pulled out a foam earplug too fast, and it was loud and resulted in a bad three-day spike. These days I take 5 seconds to slowly pull out my plugs...

 

[Allan1967]

Fortunately I woke up today with no noticeable change amongst the chaos in my head.

 

[Allan1967]

And today my 13 year old daughter bounds into the kitchen and claps her hands together as hard as she can.

I am sick of trying to navigate this life without encountering sudden loud noises or loud places and I'm not even safe in my own fu*kin home even though they know fine well how much I suffer and why. My tinnitus is just off the charts in its randomness and I'm not used to this so I'm giving this to the end of this year I think to see if anything changes and if not I'm out.

 

[Ed209]

I'm just back home from an event where there was a lot of children. I carry musicians earplugs (the plastic ones with two cups and a stem through them).

As I was going out of one room and into another I knew all theses kids were present and it was loud because of their chatting so I popped these in. Once I was away from the danger zone I went to take one of them out and it must have created a vacuum in my ear canal as I felt it pop and then my ear made a horrid loud ping noise, almost like the eardrum had been rattled. The bottom smallest cup was inverted, like a umbrella that's been sucked in.

The noise itself went away quickly and at this stage I can't tell if my tinnitus has spiked or there's any new noises as I hear a small variety throughout the day/night that come and go?

The warning is if you use these kind of plugs to make sure you get some air in first and could I have caused any damage? If it spikes when's the latest I'll know by?

I've taken a dose of magnesium citrate and B12, is there anything else I should do?

This has happened to me a few times, Allan, especially in the early days. I remember one time really vividly because it happened just before an Alumni meal at Cambridge and I was freaking out. I took NAC and magnesium citrate but was worried about the fact that I had already heard this noise and then was about to go into a hall for a meal with 80+ people in it.

Nothing happened, and again, for me looking back on this time of my life, retrospectively, I can see that I had got down the rabbit hole so deep that I didn't know which way was up anymore. That's my own personal experience and I found it was really easy for me to get carried away with worrying about what various sounds might be doing to me.

I would say in your case, try and relax (and I know it's easier said than done) because you seem anxious and tense like you have a lot on your plate. Don't add to this because it will only make you feel worse and there's nothing you can do about it anyway.

 

[Allan1967]

This has happened to me a few times, Allan, especially in the early days. I remember one time really vividly because it happened just before an Alumni meal at Cambridge and I was freaking out. I took NAC and magnesium citrate but was worried about the fact that I had already heard this noise and then was about to go into a hall for a meal with 80+ people in it.

Nothing happened, and again, for me looking back on this time of my life, retrospectively, I can see that I had got down the rabbit hole so deep that I didn't know which way was up anymore. That's my own personal experience and I found it was really easy for me to get carried away with worrying about what various sounds might be doing to me.

I would say in your case, try and relax (and I know it's easier said than done) because you seem anxious and tense like you have a lot on your plate. Don't add to this and there's nothing you can do about it anyway.

It was scary to say the least @Ed209 because you wonder what damage has been done, how long it it'll take to manifest and then there's the 'why me, why can't I just go about my day/without having these incidents' thoughts. I'm so tired of it all; I'm tired on waiting on Neuromod and anyone else. I only ever had one noise to contend with either in one or both ears or the head, now I have one sound in one, another sound in the other ear and an overarching original noise on top.

My new noises are very local to my ears and not my head and with being new and likely caused by noise I'm hoping the Neuromod Device can rectify it. I'm not sure it'll take care of my ototoxic caused noise.

 

[Bill Bauer]

today my 13 year old daughter bounds into the kitchen and claps her hands together as hard as she can.

I am sick of trying to navigate this life without encountering sudden loud noises

It sounds like you don't talk to your family about your T. I think you might want to consider doing that. Not only will you end up being safer, it would reduce the chance that your daughter will do the things that might give T to her.

 

[Agrajag364]

Need to vent... I'm ferking sick of my life... Every time I try to do something to make my life better it gets f**kin worse.

I buy a piano that was beautiful, an object that should have brought happiness and if screws the remainder of my life up.

Today I wear earplugs thinking it will help and it sends me to A&E for the afternoon.

It's like life doesn't want me here anymore, progressively doing more things that make me think wtf is going on.

Hey you had a day of silence the other day. That's an EXCELLENT sign. Try to focus on the positive, and reduce stress, I know it's a cliche but that can really you deal with the tinnitus, not freak out over spikes and in some cases might help the tinnitus get quieter over time.

 

[Allan1967]

It sounds like you don't talk to your family about your T. I think you might want to consider doing that. Not only will you end up being safer, it would reduce the chance that your daughter will do the things that might give T to her.

I talk about it a lot Bill but my daughter is like a bull in a China shop at times and typically doesn't always think.

 

[Allan1967]

Hey you had a day of silence the other day. That's an EXCELLENT sign. Try to focus on the positive, and reduce stress, I know it's a cliche but that can really you deal with the tinnitus, not freak out over spikes and in some cases might help the tinnitus get quieter over time.

I know @Agrajag364 but unfortunately what I had hoped was a spike I believe is now permanent plus additional noises. It's really disheartening when I think how all this came about because of one hours amateur piano playing on a thing I bought for a hobby that brought me immense joy.

 

[Stu1983]

@Allan1967 Hi Allan, How is the Prozac working out for you?

 

[Jr_time]

. I took NAC and magnesium citrate

Fairly new on here, what is NAC for?? You take it for when you go to loud places?

 

[Jr_time]

This has happened to me a few times, Allan, especially in the early days. I remember one time really vividly because it happened just before an Alumni meal at Cambridge and I was freaking out. I took NAC and magnesium citrate but was worried about the fact that I had already heard this noise and then was about to go into a hall for a meal with 80+ people in it.

Nothing happened, and again, for me looking back on this time of my life, retrospectively, I can see that I had got down the rabbit hole so deep that I didn't know which way was up anymore. That's my own personal experience and I found it was really easy for me to get carried away with worrying about what various sounds might be doing to me.

I would say in your case, try and relax (and I know it's easier said than done) because you seem anxious and tense like you have a lot on your plate. Don't add to this because it will only make you feel worse and there's nothing you can do about it anyway.

What is NAC for??

 

[PDodge]

Hopefully things settle down for you. I wore ear plugs daily for 6 years for work, you're supposed to gently twist them out of your ears to release the vacuum

 

[Allan1967]

@Allan1967 Hi Allan, How is the Prozac working out for you?

So far ok, it probably hasn't fully kicked in yet as I'm only into my 10th day. I'm hoping for that emotional bluntness where I'm neither up nor down.

 

[Hariz Nonis]

Hopefully things settle down for you. I wore ear plugs daily for 6 years for work, you're supposed to gently twist them out of your ears to release the vacuum

Can/will there be any possible damage from repeatedly taking them out quickly?

 

[Allan1967]

Can/will there be any possible damage from repeatedly taking them out quickly?

Probably - assuming what happened to me on Saturday happens every time.

 

[Ed209]

What is NAC for??

NAC is an antioxidant which can help with cellular damage from free radicals and oxidative stress.

 

[Jr_time]

NAC is an antioxidant which can help with cellular damage from free radicals and oxidative stress.

Thank you for your reply. Can I get in amazon? And which one do you get?

 

[Stu1983]

So far ok, it probably hasn't fully kicked in yet as I'm only into my 10th day. I'm hoping for that emotional bluntness where I'm neither up nor down.

@Allan1967
Thanks for the reply, as I'm considering taking an AD myself to get through this difficult time but am a bit concerned from past experiences. If you don't mind me asking do you have any hearing loss or just the tinnitus?

 

[Allan1967]

@Allan1967
Thanks for the reply, as I'm considering taking an AD myself to get through this difficult time but am a bit concerned from past experiences. If you don't mind me asking do you have any hearing loss or just the tinnitus?

I'm within normal parameters for my age @Stu1983 for my hearing.

 

[PDodge]

Can/will there be any possible damage from repeatedly taking them out quickly?

Musician plugs are fine to remove quickly, just the big foamies.It says right on the pack to twist 'em out slowly.

 

[Hariz Nonis]

Musician plugs are fine to remove quickly, just the big foamies.It says right on the pack to twist 'em out slowly.

What about earphones then?

 

[MSF]

Can/will there be any possible damage from repeatedly taking them out quickly?

It seems there could be. The suction caused by the vacuum, and the subsequent vibration energy in your eardrum, is supposedly the same as when a gun goes off near your head. It apparently causes the ear bones to move much faster than they are designed to. But you would apparently notice an immediate change in hearing if something was really damaged, and I think that as long as the ear drum itself isn't punctured, you are probably ok? I've definitely done this a couple times--one ear is much harder to remove the earplug from if placed deeply/properly--but thankfully nothing significant resulted aside from some minor H-related ear fullness/pain.

 

[Hariz Nonis]

It apparently causes the ear bones to move much faster than they are designed to.

Do you think such a movement, if any, can cause permanent issues?

 

[MSF]

Do you think such a movement, if any, can cause permanent issues?

I have no idea. But my guess is that damage would be more likely to be sudden, i.e., you would know it immediately, rather than delayed. My bigger concern would not be with ear bones but eardrum getting slowly damaged over time if you are constantly creating suction on it. And presumably that could affect your hearing sensitivity.