Stethoscope question

[deleted1041221]

Hi all, not sure if this is the right place for this, but I didn't want to clog the more active forums! Essentially, I think that I have a very narrow ear canal opening, which means that when I use a stethoscope, the earpieces sit right up against the fleshy part of my ear, rather than face into my ear canal. This results in muffling of the sounds, and when I wear a stethoscope, it almost "clogs" my ears. Typically I can't hear heart sounds at all, but I can hear somewhat better if I adjust the stethoscope to just barely sit inside of my ear. Is this at all a common problem? Will I run into difficulties in medical training because of it, or are there special earpieces or stethoscopes I can buy? I normally have no problems with my hearing.

As a related question, I find that I can hear my finger joints loudly through the diaphragm when I hold it against someone's chest (but ironically, as I said above, no heart sounds unless I really adjust the earpieces and ear tubes). My finger joints sound very creaky/squeaky. Is this abnormal?

Thanks for reading!

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[poachedprogram]

Did you find some suggestions?

 

[WheezyBaby]

Hi all, not sure if this is the right place for this, but I didn't want to clog the more active forums! Essentially, I think that I have a very narrow ear canal opening, which means that when I use a stethoscope, the earpieces sit right up against the fleshy part of my ear, rather than face into my ear canal. This results in muffling of the sounds, and when I wear a stethoscope, it almost "clogs" my ears. Typically I can't hear heart sounds at all, but I can hear somewhat better if I adjust the stethoscope to just barely sit inside of my ear. Is this at all a common problem? Will I run into difficulties in medical training because of it, or are there special earpieces or stethoscopes I can buy? I normally have no problems with my hearing.

As a related question, I find that I can hear my finger joints loudly through the diaphragm when I hold it against someone's chest (but ironically, as I said above, no heart sounds unless I really adjust the earpieces and ear tubes). My finger joints sound very creaky/squeaky. Is this abnormal?

Thanks for reading!

The rubber ear piece might be folding. Try different sizing, or you could try hard plastic. As far as the finger creaking, I've found it helpful to hold the stethoscope by the distal tubing and apply pressure that way

 

[Angler]

The old fashioned Sprague Rappaport stethoscopes (like the ancient high end Hewlett Packard that I started using in med school) are adjustable so that the angle at which the earpieces can fit the ear canal. The fancy Littmann's are not really adjustable at all. I had to switch to Littmann about 10 years ago or so, because I could no longer obtain parts for my old HP.

If you look at a picture of a Sprague Rappaport, you'll get the idea about the adjustability.

 

[Severus21]

Honestly you probably only need a stethoscope for like Med school. Maybe intern year. I lost mine sometime during pgy2 (a long time ago) and haven’t looked back.

I’m only half joking.