Worried About Suction from Silicone Earplugs Causing Damage

[TBH]

Thanks Juan. I suppose I'm looking for something that doesn't exist maybe. But to hold a piece of paper and be able to hear that in your hand while wearing 25 quid plugs is bad news for me.

 

[GoingGrayy]

I'm really concerned that when I took out the moldable silicone earplugs about a week ago that I caused damage.

When I took them out there was a beep and I saw an article about how the suction from a kiss to the ear can cause damage so I'm really worried I damaged my hearing more even though I was trying to be protect myself by wearing earplugs. The crackling when I talk or during certain noises started after this incident. I went to the doctor and there is impacted wax deep in the ear canal but I'm really thinking I did more damage to myself.

I appreciate any words of encouragement or advice.

When you push in or take out earplugs that create a seal, you cause an increase in pressure (or suction/decrease in pressure, respectively) on the eardrum/ossicles attached to the eardrum (which make up your "middle ear"). Basically this action causes very mild barotrauma. For most people this doesn't matter, they can insert/remove sealing earplugs or headphones hundreds or thousands of times and never notice anything. But for some people, like me, and maybe you, this creates a tinnitus which doesn't resolve until the underlying mechanical (of the eardrum or ossicles, or maybe even something of the inner ear, who knows!!) change heals. The "beep" (for me, 1220hz/1275hz/1340hz/1420hz) used to last a few minutes for me, but with every subsequent pressure/suction (especially if it occurred before the previous one had fully healed), the duration increases. Currently I'm at about a month for a full heal!

If you have any questions, let me know. If you are experiencing fundamentally the same thing as I am, I'd love to help in any way I can, and I'd love to have any more information of your situation you can provide. I'm continuously trying to build my understanding of this thing/come up with testable theories of how it works/what worsens it/what improves it, so I can live with it better.

The one thing I am quite sure about is it's an objective and/or somatic tinnitus produced by the mechanic damage to... whichever. My tinnitus tones for this particular issue, unlike some other tinnitus I have, interact harmonically (not sure thats the right word) with closely matched tones — I can make it wobble or sometimes negate it entirely if I get the frequency/phase just right.

 

[David Ashley]

I think the same thing happened to me this morning. I just can't help but think it's the silicone earplugs. When my tinnitus first occurred a few years ago, it was a morning after I had been wearing foam earplugs and I had slept on them funny. When I woke up there was a distinct soreness in one ear. And the terribly loud tinnitus began then. Today I've been completely out of sorts and terrified that the same thing has happened again, this time with silicone ones. Even though I have worn silicone ones many times in the past without incident.

The other possibility for today's increased bout of tinnitus is that I started an SSRI about a week ago and it has admittedly been creating with pretty strange effects on my body, namely large amounts of energy.

Anyway, today was very rough. I have a neighbor who moved in above me and I really need earplugs to get through the nights, because he runs a fan that vibrates through the ceiling and is damned distracting.

I read the other posts in this thread, where one fellow suggests that this can cause a barotrauma that, in his example, took a month for him to heal.

If this will heal... I can endure it. If it heals... OK. Then it's just a thing to endure for a month or something.

 

[David Ashley]

I think it's better today...

 

[David Ashley]

I'm convinced it was "barotrauma caused by suction during removal". It's the only thing that makes sense. So I would imagine it's just a matter of being more careful while using silicone earplugs. I've certainly worn them many many times without incident, and after my tinnitus was already bad.