Hearing Loss Prevention

It’s a noisy world — the best thing you can do for your hearing is take action early to prevent hearing loss. 

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) reports that hearing loss is the third most chronic health condition in the US and is nearly twice as prevalent as diabetes or cancer.  Environmental noise pollution has been linked to high blood pressure, loss of sleep, and hypertension. 

Excessive noise exposure is the second greatest cause of hearing loss, but the good news is that noise-induced hearing loss is 100% preventable.

These products are intended to protect your hearing and reduce the chance of needing hearing aids in the future.

Passive Hearing Protection

Passive Earcups

These can be very inexpensive yet very effective. Sometimes it’s nice to have non-customized hearing protection because this can allow more than one person to use the same earcups. You can hang them up right next to your power tools for anyone to use right along with the protective glasses and gloves.

Custom Passive Earplugs

These products are great for those around excessively loud noise such as machine noise from heavy equipment, power tools and firearms. They are custom molded to fit the ears. They can come in a variety of colors and even with a protective coating that is 99.9% effective against pathogens which may cause ear infections. They tend to cost a little more than over-the-ear earcups, but if you have ever worn earcups while mowing your lawn on a hot summer day, you can begin to appreciate how nice it would be to protect your hearing without all of the heat buildup from protective earcups.

Electronic Hearing Protection

Custom Electronic Earplugs

Similar to the passive earplugs, these are also custom molded to fit the ears.  Unlike the passive earplugs, these devices allow lower and moderate volumes to pass through them, but attenuate loud, harmful sounds.  Since they don’t cover the ears, they don’t allow as much heat to buildup. They can be designed to protect the wearer against steady state loud environmental sounds such as machine and vehicle noises, or they can be designed for sudden impulse sounds such firearms.  We have seen so many cases where someone had earcups handy, but the wearer took them off for just a moment when someone fired a round off too close.  Sometimes it only takes a split second to become a hearing aid candidate.

Electronic Earcups

Like the custom electronic earplugs, these devices allow low and moderate volume sounds to pass through, but quickly shut down loud, harmful sounds.  And similar to the passive earcups, you can share them since they are not customized for one person’s ears.

Musicians Hearing Protection

Musician Earplugs

This type of passive earplug is also custom molded for the ears. As opposed to a solid silicon earplug which maximally and unevenly attenuates sound, musician earplugs utilize a replaceable filter to more evenly soften a broad range of frequencies. The wearer can change the filters for greater or lesser attenuation.

Musician In-Ear Monitors

These not only dampen loud stage volume, but they also bring in the musician’s own instrument or vocals. It allows the wearer to better hear what they are playing rather than being overwhelmed with the sound from other musicians on stage. They can also come in a variety of colors and logos. Higher end in-ear monitors come with multiple speaker or “drivers” for a richer sound analogous to dedicated speakers for low, mid, and high frequencies in home theater systems.

Other Types of Hearing & Ear Protection

Hearing Protection Headphones

Typically for individuals who spend time shooting guns during target practice or while hunting.

Swimming Earplugs

Intended to block water from entering the ear canals, these help to prevent the dreaded swimmer’s ear. They can come in various colors and are positively buoyant in case they are pulled out while in the pool. The earplugs can even be ordered with a membrane covered sound channel to allow sound to pass through while wearing them.

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