Ear protection when grinding ??

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I’ve been wearing 3M Worktunes headphones for the last couple of years. Great sound inside and near complete blocking of outside noise. They’re pretty comfortable too.
 
I think I will throw my hat into this ring: I am a retired licensed hearing aid dispenser
, April 2021, son of a WWII Marine who had a severe hearing loss from a little place called Tarawa, a man who was smart but was treated like he was dumb as dirt because he could not hear well. Hearing loss respects no one! For those above who have a loss,, I understand! Please wear your aids .... when appropriate!

Britt, I reread both of your posts.... I sounds like you have a perforated tympanic membrane, I.e. Ear drum.

For those who have young babies, toddlers, etc., .... the eustacion tube in children is fairly flat... the middle ear is lined with mucous membranes... so if your nose is running so is your middle ear! In the young ones the eustachion tube clogs easily, the pressure from mucous secretion builds up, the ear drum bulges causing pain and babies cry. Hell, grown men cry! Hurts almost as bad as a kidney stone. So if your child is fussy and pulling at an ear... get medical care immediately!

For the younger men .... you ain't bullet proof and maybe in five or twenty years and all those insults to your hearing may result in some sweet thing entreating you for some 'pillow talk' in the wee hours .... which you missed. Just saying!

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health , NIOSH, has a sound level meter app..... NIOSH SLM. It is a great app! In my garage/shop the noisiest equipment is the Bauer portable bandsaw..... 108 dB.... per the app, "110dB Regular and prolonged unprotected exposure of more than 1.5 (That is NOT a typo!) minutes per day risks permanent hearing loss." The app is free!

Ear plugs and ear muffs ( I am ignoring noise cancellation devices because I have no experience nor knowledge to speak definitively). Fit, fit, fit... if not inserted or worn properly .... well you ge t the picture. The last time I looked at the disclaimers on the packaging both ear plugs and muffs only reduced sound about 26 - 29'dB ...

I could go ... and on... but won't! Protect your hearing for your sake! For your family! For your friends , co-workers, customers!
 
I didn't mention it earlier because it isn't for the shop, but I bought an orange hardhat with the rotating flip down earmuffs. I use it for cutting down trees and running the brush chipper. IIRC, it has 30Db reduction. The earmuffs are replaceable when they get grungy or old and stiff. A brush chipper is LOUD and continuous. You also work it from a very close distance. All three are really bad on the ears.
 
The other thing which is a little weird is that hearing at specific frequencies is a “ use it or lose it” kind of thing. once you lose hearing at higher frequencies, *if* you don’t get it corrected with hearing aids, then you progressively faster and faster lose your hearing response at those frequencies due to loss of the nerve cells (in both the auditory nerve and in the brain itself) due to atrophy … ie, if the associated nerves don’t fire regularly, they die. So … protect early, and correct early
 
Cushing H. said:
The other thing which is a little weird is that hearing at specific frequencies is a “ use it or lose it” kind of thing. once you lose hearing at higher frequencies, *if* you don’t get it corrected with hearing aids, then you progressively faster and faster lose your hearing response at those frequencies due to loss of the nerve cells (in both the auditory nerve and in the brain itself) due to atrophy … ie, if the associated nerves don’t fire regularly, they die. So … protect early, and correct early
Click to expand...
😮 never heard of that before. I went to the ear specialist today and I go back Friday for some hearing test.
 
Cushing H. Respectfully... at a very high level... mostly ..kinda correct. Technically... and I really am trying not to be argumentative... depends on the cause of the hearing loss. Sound is air pressure energy and the brain determines what it perceives to be the sound from the chemo-electrical impulse from the 8th auditory nerve (i think i recall that correctly). For the input to equal the output everything must work correctly. Remember the old computer adage... garbage in equals garbage out? If the 'translation' is incorrect, then what you hear is incorrect... it may be very close.... ice water vs fly swatter .... dress vs breast... (true story behind that one!). Recall that noise exposure over time at sufficient levels results in hearing loss. All noise induced loss is cumulative.... the inner ear 'parts' do not regenerate... it does in chickens by the way... just not fair is it?

Hearing aids are NOT corrective devices! they are aids, they assist or aid in providing sound at frequencies that tested as needing assistance subject to .... the comfort of the patient! What? An example: I have an unaidable high frequency hearing loss at 5 & 6 K... probable related to around age 16 (I am now 77) a M80 detonating about 3 feet in front of my nose and/or a 30-06 round fired about 4 feet from my right shoulder both unprotected! The effect of such 'insult' to the inner ear probably sheared off/collapsed the very small cilia (very fine hair like structures whose location and length in the cochlear are frequency specific) due to an induced pressure wave in the fluid. If the cilia do not function properly... garbage in garbage out .... in simple terms. Now... i mentioned comfort earlier. I can hear a 6k tone at 105 dB....it sounds like a skillet full of very hot bacon grease sizzling. I do not hear tones or spoken speech at that frequency and that sound at 105 dB would drive me nuts in about 10 minutes! If I or my patient were to wear an aid amplifying sound to that level and that frequency the aids would in up in the drawer and I or my patient would not have benefited from the aids.

There is a technique... each manufacturer has their name for the process... I knew it as Frequency Compression... the aid algorythms move an un-aidable frequency range down on top of a lower aidable frequency range... some folks responded well... some did not (I did not!).

If the loss is less and the patient benefits from amplification at his/her loss levels then aids may benefit. Note: it takes the brain at least 90 days to acclimate to aids, changes to current settings, etc.. It is not a race! I recommend aid wearers and/or those who know they have a loss or whose family says they have a loss to google this " Ten Commandments the Hearing Impaired Wish You Knew". I gave a copy to all my patients. So.... protect early,,, correct early.
 
Something I find VERY aggravating is that, even as I grow deafer, the ear still "hears" raging tinnitus without loss. At least I go to sleep every night with sounds of cicadas buzzing on a summer night. Thanks, Pfizer.
 
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