Thread: Dont take hearing protection lightly

I run Resound customer fitted ear plugs with ear muffs over the top to deal with the percusion. My father is 70 years old this year and is deaf as. A life time of running earthmoving machines and ACC will not cover it as it not from a specific event. So private funding of hearing aids and recently an implant. Prioir to the Implant, I haven't been about to have a conversation with him for the past 10 or 15 years. A real shit life for him too.

I'll not going down that path!

Originally Posted by Cigar

I had ringing in my ears for about 3 days after a Black Label Society concert in the Auckland Town Hall. I often wear earplugs at concerts (I'm into hard rock/metal)

Years ago when I had hair on the top of my head I went to a Shihad concert in Chch

I took two sets of plugs for my self & my Girlfriend at the time.

She wasn't keen on wearing them because they looked silly...I pointed out no one could see them under her long hair... Girls....

The warm up band was pretty loud, Shihad was absolutely awesome but just bloody silly...I could feel the shortish hair on the top of my head was moving

The ear plugs were a very welcome addition on that night

Just quietly...F--K they were loud

I also take between 20 and 30 Long Haul flights a year. I wear my fitted ear plugs on the plane to cut out the engine noise.

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

I religiously wear hearing protection at work, when I ride a motorcycle. I try to use it when hunting but I am planning on getting some digital ear muffs.

I have tinnitus from too much ear wax and now I'm an adult it's prohibitively expensive to get it vacuumed out. But it was so nice when I didn't have ringing in my ears.

Buy an ear candle at the pharmacy. $20, vacuums out excess ear wax.

Originally Posted by Apollo

Buy an ear candle at the pharmacy. $20, vacuums out excess ear wax.

Cheers

I do my own I use a syringe with warm water takes a little bit to get the hang of it but works well

My hearing tested damn near perfect in 2014 when I did a medical exam for employment. Nurse couldn't believe my hearing wasn't fucked in a certain frequency range after I mentioned hunting as an activity. was a surprise to me for sure. In the meantime I would say ambient noise from cooling fans, air compressors and hammer drills would of hurt my hearing more than shooting.

Originally Posted by tetawa

Did you originally train as an "ear, nose and mouth" surgeon, or did the skill just come to you naturally in later life.

Comes from years of busted ear drums, water skiing, two sinus punch and bore jobs, a chunk out of my voice box and the most entertaining specialist. The first time I went to him he looked in my ear and said “ shit there’s daylight on the other side” not quite the norm to start an examination first up?

Some little snippets for you:

- ACC only covers hearing loss from occupational exposure, not recreational shooting. The only exception to this is if you cop a one-off "accidental" event like a mate letting his big banger off very close to your ear.

- Tinnitus is not caused by excessive wax. It is an expected side effect/symptom of inner ear ( sensorineural) damage.

- You can't measure the true level of firearms noise with basic sound level meters. They will significantly under-estimate the peak level which correlates with the risk

- Noise alone will only damage high frequency hearing. You can still hear rumbling stuff at distance well but voices sound muffled/mumbly and you will be in serious trouble in noisy social situations.

Yes, decent hearing aids help but can never come close to replacing what you were born with, especially in background noise.

In case you're wondering, I'm a near-retired clinical audiologist who has fitted tens of thousands of hearing aids..

Originally Posted by 6x47

Some little snippets for you:

- ACC only covers hearing loss from occupational exposure, not recreational shooting. The only exception to this is if you cop a one-off "accidental" event like a mate letting his big banger off very close to your ear.

- Tinnitus is not caused by excessive wax. It is an expected side effect/symptom of inner ear ( sensorineural) damage.

- You can't measure the true level of firearms noise with basic sound level meters. They will significantly under-estimate the peak level which correlates with the risk

- Noise alone will only damage high frequency hearing. You can still hear rumbling stuff at distance well but voices sound muffled/mumbly and you will be in serious trouble in noisy social situations.

Yes, decent hearing aids help but can never come close to replacing what you were born with, especially in background noise.

In case you're wondering, I'm a near-retired clinical audiologist who has fitted tens of thousands of hearing aids..

When I was tested and visited the specialist in the early 1980's ACC accepted their finding of industrial deafness. 30 plus years later on my 4th reassessment the ACC specialist has decided that only 17% is due to industrial noise, the rest is hereditary, even though I'm the only family member with any hearing loss.

Originally Posted by 6x47

Some little snippets for you:

- ACC only covers hearing loss from occupational exposure, not recreational shooting. The only exception to this is if you cop a one-off "accidental" event like a mate letting his big banger off very close to your ear.

- Tinnitus is not caused by excessive wax. It is an expected side effect/symptom of inner ear ( sensorineural) damage.

- You can't measure the true level of firearms noise with basic sound level meters. They will significantly under-estimate the peak level which correlates with the risk

- Noise alone will only damage high frequency hearing. You can still hear rumbling stuff at distance well but voices sound muffled/mumbly and you will be in serious trouble in noisy social situations.

Yes, decent hearing aids help but can never come close to replacing what you were born with, especially in background noise.

In case you're wondering, I'm a near-retired clinical audiologist who has fitted tens of thousands of hearing aids..

Gotta say Ive resisted and resisted and resisted hearing aids. Then my grand kids caused me grief cause I couldnt hold a conversation with them, so my wife got me a "free" hearing test, which I begrudgingly attended!! ( ffffing old people ) The guy did a full test and went through my options. He fitted a set so I good hear what I was missing. It was like "when can I get em" Not cheap, but no batteries to piss about with and hooks to my iphone. Have been wearing them 15 hrs a day since then, except for weekends working round the house or boating etc. Changed my life, and now can join in group conversation without saying, what? what? hey what? or just getting on my phone and disappearing into my own world in the corner.

Preserving your sense of smell is important as well.

Sniffing Farts is meant to be good for your brain? Not a lot of intelligence in Rotorua though?

I thought that my hearing was ok, until I went for a test arranged by a potential employer. Boy did I get a surprise.

My job involves a lot of big noisy machinery, and having to maintain contact via vhf. Chuck in a few foreign accents and BOOM...I am hopeless

i have spent allot of my career building sound equipment. in my 50's now and still have great hearing as i always took precautions. but i still keep getting " it needs to be louder" from customers. and heres what happens, they want it loud but dont want to spend the money. end result is they buy a cheaper system and thrash it to the point of clipping and distortion. end result is hearing damage. clipped audio at high volume is far more damaging that clean audio at the same volume.