Custom fitted ear plugs

[arielc]

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Does anyone have experience of using custom fitted ear plugs during work (such as when using high-speed hand pieces)?

I think the highspeed sound is unpleasant, but I just bear with it and, in time, got used to it. I know it's probably damaging the hair cells in my ear, even when I block it out from my thoughts....Sorry ears.

So then I read up about the effects of prolonged exposure to high frequency noises. It seems like a worthwhile investment. I just would like to know if anyone has experience of using them, their comfortableness, how many visits to the audiologist, pricing...etc. Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks!

 

[Jediwendell]

The guy my wife works with wears them, and his former partner had deafness (dunno whether from handpieces or not), and wore them too. It may just be because he is a pediatric dentist though..........

seriously, probably not a bad idea.

 

[arielc]

this is the article I read about:
http://www.etymotic.com/articles_reviews/content/GDACtionDecemberp17-19.pdf

It's a company-sponsered study, so it's probably biased to promote its own product. Not being able to hear very well might not seem like a big problem now (in the face of classes+labs+oh-the-BOARDS), but having an early onset of NIHL (noise induced hearing loss) isn't too cool. I'm just thinking about how many hours out of a day, a week, a month, a year we'll be working with the trusty handpiece....

 

[gpg]

Don't know about the dentist,but in my clinic I have a couple of MP3-CD Players which I offer to patients.It almost drowns the sound of the handpiece and greatly helps relieve them of the stress.

Try it,it works!