Do you protect your ears?
 

Silly question, you might think, but a while back I was the videographer for an Asian party, and the music levels were INSANE!!! I dont know if this is the norm (I have never done an Asian wedding but they seem pretty wild from what I have seen online!) Seriously, if I walked past the speakers it almost knocked me over. After 2 hours of shooting in this environment, I had the craziest ringing in my ears that lasted well over 24 hours, I actually thought I had permanent hearing damage! Thankfully it got better and I am back to normal now, but I know exposure to loud music can cause you hearing issues, so from now on I will be bringing ear plugs to all weddings!

Have any of you encountered painfully high music that caused you problems?

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Earplugs at receptions. Always. For me at least. I have a pack of them on hand. Some receptions are crazy loud especially when the DJs start yelling.

And as a side note, I always have to feel very badly for older wedding guests when the B&G seat them right next to the PA system. I actually consult a lot of my couples about considering that move differently.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

After many years I gradually lost my hearing to less tan 40% and have to wear a hearing and also there is a constant high pitched ringing in both my ears that drives me insane if I stop to think about and listen for it. After every reception when I got home, it was like my hearing "volume" went on the low mode and gradually got back up in the morning, but my hearing ability gradually got reduced to the point that I could not hear my cell phone at 10 feet away. You definitely need to put on them earplugs.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

I second and heartily agree with Arthur. I also didn't pay too much attention to loud noise at receptions and for the time I filmed rock bands on stage, loud noise was part of the excitement. After about ten years the ringing in my ears that I had for sometime days afterwards started to stay with me for longer and now like Arthur I have a permanent high pitched sound in my ears day and night - it's called tinitus - and my ability to hear high frequency sounds is greatly reduced especially if there is a deep bass sound present. This hearing loss is irreversible.
So my advice is ALWAYS use ear plugs of some description if you'll be in a loud noise environment.

Oh, and by the way Asian receptions are always VERY LOUD.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

I've seen photogs wear them. Thought about it myself. Myb I'll take the plunge and try em out this year. .

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

What? I can't hear you! ;-)

You bet I protect my ears. After years of beating them up and NOT using protection at all times I started wearing my headphones about 20 years ago at all times at weddings. All times being ceremonies and receptions. Once the dancing starts I turn the monitor level down to 0 on them and just watch the bars but otherwise I use the headphones just for protection and while they are exactly great for that they do cut the noise down by probably about 80%. Of course I still have selective hearing according to my wife but that's more a function of being married for 45 years! ;-)

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

At my wedding last Saturday for the very first time I saw the DJ putting in ear plugs !! I guess if he does it then it's worth doing.

Must get myself a set I think ..headphones would get a little hot surely?

Chris

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

This is an interesting topic, I'm thinking a good set of active noise cancelling over the ear headphones may be a good investment for this type of environments.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

I have tight fitting rubber earbuds in my ears, but I use them as ear plugs. My monitor level is zero during dancing.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

For any of us who came home and hear ringing in our ears, that is (often) permanent hearing loss - once that ringing goes away, you will never hear that frequency again. Unless, like Arthur, the damage was so traumatic that you get tinnitus (a kind of nerve damage). It's well worth it to wear ear plugs. (some drugs, like ibuprofren can cause a temporary and brief ringing our sound in ears, though, unrelated to hearing damage).

When I DJ I ALWAYS wear earplugs. I haven't when helping filming, because we don't usually film very much of the dance and weddings aren't usually so loud as to cause problems that early.

At weddings, the drug store style for $1.95 a bag will work, because it's still reducing the sound by 15dB, which is huge and at most weddings, should be enough to prevent damage, unless you stand right in front of the speakers for a long while (or if the DJ has it turned up to some ridiculous level).

When I work something really loud, like a school dance (or a concert), I wear a pair of custom made earplugs. They were made at a hearing aid shop and weren't very expensive, but cut out 36 dB, so I can't really hear what people are saying, even, but at least I keep my hearing.

Ironically, after DJ'ing for 16 years, most of my hearing loss wasn't from the job, but from sitting with my grandpa when he was on Hospice care. He would have the TV on max volume, and I'd sit with him so long, that the damage would happen. Worth it, though.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

That's good advice sensei. I should start doing that.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Robert, That's a good idea. I went to Guitar Center and they've never heard of 'selective ear plugs'. I'd like to hear what people are saying but block the loud noise. I'll look around my area for a store.

And Don, I've been married less than you, it doesn't take long to get 'selective wife' hearing.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

The regular foam ear plugs at Walmart or the drug store, will cut out 5-15dB, which will make it easier to hear people talking to you, because the overall noise level is lower. It's part of what is called the 'cocktail party' effect. Your brain can usually filter out what you don't want to hear, but once it gets too loud, you have trouble. If you have hearing damage, you may notice it's harder to understand people if a room has a lot of ambient noise (other people talking). My hearing damage is bad enough that I find all the noise of a 'cocktail party' very frustrating and irritating, if I can't focus on my subject.

-----------
Robert
RNB Wedding Videos

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

I use these. The HD ones provide even more protection.

EarPeace | The Best Ear Plugs for Loud Entertainment | Order Yours Now

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Add me as another who now wishes he had used ear protection.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

In my experience, MPH (Male Pattern Hearing) isn't something you can do much about.... Scientifically speaking, it's "probably" because we lose ability to hear higher frequencies as we age, and female voices are naturally higher pitch... but only about 50% of the population will buy this explanation...


BUT seriously, having worked in audio, woodshops, and other LOUD places, I made it a habit to ALWAYS have a little plastic case with earplugs of some sort in it in my pocket... ALL THE TIME! It's come in handy more than you would expect - many places are loud enough to exceed "safe" levels.

Here's why - hearing loss can be rapid (exposure to an explosion, or percussive sound at close range for instance), AND progressive, meaning that each time you're exposed to high volumes, even for a brief time, a little "damage" is done, until you either suffer hearing loss (typically the highs go, so you can't hear the parts of the sound spectrum that give you the "clues" as to what you're hearing), or tinnitus (constant or intermittent ringing)... or both

Far better to protect your hearing if possible whenever you're in loud environments (same reason you should wear safety glasses in certain situations!). Sure, you may not have immediate or "permanent" damage (or at least evidence of it), but over time, eventually your luck will run out. Worse yet, as you get older, the "transgressions of our youth" seem to catch up with us in the worst ways! All the stuff you "abuse" while young will be around to remind you later of the consequences!

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

This is what I've been trying to explain to my wife for 45 years. She doesn't buy it BUT with the precise scientific explain perhaps I can convince her. If she'll only listen to me.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Used to be foam plugs (I still keep a pair in my camera bag), but for weddings, I mostly rely on the tight-fitting earbuds which mute the outside sounds while allowing me to monitor the camera audio. I leave them in once the dancing starts. Hopefully, they'll keep my hearing intact.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

I use Over the ear headphones. Cancel out noise and I can monitor the audio on my camcorder at the same time. My ears have thanked me :D

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

If in a pinch, take one square of toilet paper, then rip it in equal halves. Take each strip and roll it into balls, then a quick soak under running water. Squeeze out excess water, then put the balls of toilet paper into your ears. If too tight, tear the square in thirds instead of halves. Works wonders, and it's free! Test it right now, the only thing you'll hear is your breathing.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

+2 for what Dave Blackhurst wrote. Sumed it up pretty well.

A couple weeks ago I was talking to an audiologist and he said that there are prescription ear plugs that musicians use. For someone who does weddings and spends time during when the loud music is playing, prescriptive ear plugs would be better than the over the counter type.

One important thing is to know that exposure to loud noise causes cumulative damage to ones ears.

Personally, I like the hearing protectors like those sold at construction and building supply stores. Over the ear hearing protectors, for me, work much better than the little foam things to put in the ear. Running the lawn mower, chain saw, working on the boat engine while it is running, playing my instrument ... I wear them all the time.

Also, my wife accuses me of having the Male Pattern Hearing loss too. I remember once when my doctor asked if I had hearing loss. pause.... Uh, did you say something?

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

I don't normally work in environments that kind of loud, but when I do, yes, I either am provided them by someone on staff or ask.

I really hate the sensation of something IN my ears. . .would rather wear thick headphones, or those kind like the aircraft carrier guys wear.

I fully believe in the practice for environments that loud, but the plugs irritate.

Just read you can get, for instance, Sony 7506 headphone. . .uh. . .headphones put INSIDE the giant aircraft carrier type muffs. There's some company that does that.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Tinitus has cut short my music career and reduced my quality of life dramatically. I really recommend ear protection in any loud environment, as the consequences are horrible, and the damage is easily preventable.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Josh, I believe the aircraft workers actually use hearing protection designed for such use.... I used to have a pair similar (I think the pair i had was for gun shooting) and they blocked tons of noise... they worked wonders for blocking out sounds. I tried once to put the earpiece parts from an old set of Sony Walkman headphones in the ear pieces and couldnt hear the headphones very well even though they were against my ears... seems the ear muffs actually suppressed air movement and even muffled the sounds that emitted from inside the ear muffs.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Like Ralph says, the "Shooter's Earplugs" from the gun shop are more effective than the foam earplugs at WalMart, Lowe's etc. They have a corkscrew like design and actually screw into your ear. They work well when we have to shoot at a loud venue, like a cheerleading competition. That gig was like a rock concert volume wise. They also help when you're shooting sports and you're positioned near the loudspeakers on top of the press box.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

If you want headphones to monitor your audio, search for OSHA approved ear buds or headphones. You'll find them that cut out a LOT of outside noise.

If you'll be at fiercely loud events, like that Cheerleading event, then consider the custom made earplugs. They really were inexpensive (less than the OSHA headphones) I just went in, got a mold made, and had them in a week or two. They fit great, don't go deep into your ear canal, which is dangerous, and cut out 36(?) dB, so that the rock concert volume because a reasonable, conversational volume.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

This isn't entirely accurate.

This is coming from a Workplace Safety and Health educator and permanent partial hearing loss and tinnitus sufferer (me).

The "hairs" in the ear that are "traumatized" by loud noises can stand back up in time. Whether they do or not is dictated by several factors, the most significant being loudness and length of exposure. This defines the Threshold Limit Volume. The louder the noise, the less time the ears can sustain the noise levels before permanent damage occurs.

My own hearing loss is a notch at or about 3.7KHz, close to the "bump" on a Shure SM58 vocal mic. Tinnitus for over 15 years. But I retain VERY high auditory acuity in the non-affected frequency spectrum - I hear VERY quiet sounds but I can't pick up human speech distinctly against background noise due to the notch filtering.

A VERY loud noise - a gunshot a foot away from your ear - can cause permanent immediate hearing damage, but so can prolonged exposure to a significantly lower decibel noise environment can as well.

If allowed to recover (no continued exposure to loud noise) the "hairs" in the auditory canal CAN stand back up and become receptive to frequencies again, ASSUMING the trauma wasn't significant enough (long enough or loud enough) to cause permanent damage.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Thanks for a very interesting post Shaun albeit a mile away from the subject of this forum. I have the annoying phenomenon of being able to hear a faint electric hum two rooms away or our neighbour's A/C 500 meters away in the quiet of the night through the continuous ringing in my ears yet find it difficult to hear what a person next to me is saying if there is any background sound in the room such as a tv or radio or two other people chatting. I'd be interested to find out just which frequencies I've lost connection with.

For any of our younger readers this happened to me in my late forties, about the same time I started to loose my close focus vision and had to resort to glasses to adjust the settings on my cameras.

Note to Shaun below.

I was referring to my extending of the discussion away from the nature of the forum by expanding on your answer not on what you posted. These discussions often get very scatological and diverge into conversations that move away from the subject of the forum. As I've found in the past the tone and intent of posts is very often misinterpreted or misunderstood which results in bite-backs.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Of course you DID notice the quote I was directly responding to...

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

I think this is an excellent thread on a potential "occupational hazard" that you usually don't think about (should be a "sticky", really!)

Hearing loss, either temporary (from short very loud noise like explosion or gunshot at close range), or permanent (from repeated percussive exposure, or longer term high db exposure) is NOT FUN, but It happens.

Ask any tinnitus sufferer, it's miserable. I've been "lucky" to have it intermittently a couple rare times, it would drive me nuts if it were constant!


With all due respect to the "toilet paper" approach (remember you have to get the plug OUT later...), which in a pinch is better than nothing at all, there are a WIDE range of professional solutions to hearing protection (with varying amounts of sound pressure reduction, not all are the same db reduction).

Whether one buys a few of the foam or cone types at the hardware or drug store so you can keep them in your kit or pocket, or you get some "custom fitted" ones (I used to have some semi-custom ones from "Docs Pro plugs" I liked, ought to get some one of these days...), having hearing protection is MANDATORY in high decibel environments - it's cheap "protection", you can't buy a new set of ears when or if you wear the old ones out....

Take care of your "gear" and it'll take care of you!

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

The industrial ones for me are better and more convenient than the pharmaceutical ones. The latter are just loose bits of silicone or foam and if you take them out and drop them they are gone. The undustrial ones (ours are either bright yellow or orange are tougher but the big advantage is they have a string on them so you have slip the coupled pair around your neck and just tuck the buds under your collar and they are ready to use when need and you don't lose 'em either ... Worksafe style stores have them!

I have also used earbugs plugged into nothing...they do help!!

Chris

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

I have a pair of these that I combine with the orange -32db foam earplugs when really loud:

Amazon.com: Howard Leight by Honeywell R-01902 Impact Pro Electronic Shooting Earmuffs: Home Improvement

You can plug a camera into them to hear audio, they are noise cancelling, and you can also hear conversations around you. They are big, but if you want great protection and versatility, these may be the best. I wish I had these 20 years ago...

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Do you guys who used custom molded plugs or those corkscrew pasta lookin' ones find them comfortable? In ear stuff always made me itchy/irritated after a while, but I've only used the el cheapo foamy plugs passed out in large quantities. One problem is they never really feel like they're IN, more like they're always on the verge of falling out.

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

Thanks for all your replies, I didnt realise this was such a common thing. Thankfully my hearing came back after a day or so but it really freaked me out, I thought the tinitus was permanent and felt like suing the DJ for ruining my life. But I recovered, but am now definitely the wiser. What was insane was that parents were holding 3 month old babies really close to the speakers, and the babies acted like it was nothin' ! Not in the least bit upset... unless they were already deaf from the exposure, but I thought it was extremly dangerous to expose young children to this level of noise as their ears are much less protected.

Thanks for all the tips!

Re: Do you protect your ears?
 

James,
I shot NASCAR racing and sometimes you flip a coin and end up being the camera tech instead of an operator. I'm talking about the remote controlled cameras that are along the wall of the track. The ops can be as far as 1/4 mile away from the cameras but the tech is in a golf cart (need to be able to cover at least 1/2 half of the track quickly so the might be 2 techs and we're on the rim road not on the actual track of course). anyway, there are 43 very high horsepower cars going as fast as 200+ MPH (depending on the track) and as you can imagine it is extremely loud. Some people use the little foam ear plugs, personally I used Clark muffs since I was on a radio that had the director and my crew chief on it so I could hear all that was going on and we could communicate.
I can't tell you how many people I saw that had no ear protection at all. OK as an adult they made they're own decision BUT the kids (NASCAR is a family oriented type activity) of all ages from 2 or 3 years old (maybe some younger) would be there at the track, again these are 850 horsepower cars and there are 43 of them (at least to start) and the noise level is beyond belief. these kids for the most part didn't have ear protection and while I was marveling at the idiocy of the parents I of course could not say anything.
I could only guess how much the little ones ears hurt after a 500 mile race.
Protect your ears, you only have 2 and they don't re-grow. Cover them with good muffs or at least decent headphones. The hearing you save will be you're own!