Hearing protection and decibel levels..."just the facts ma'am...just the facts please."

by boisepaw Sat Feb 24 2024, 00:19

First topic message reminder :

Two months after experiencing catastrophic and complete hearing loss in my left ear, and probably 10 appointments with a variety of doctors and healthcare professionals, the audiologist today pretty much insisted that my left ear is "dead"...i.e. damaged beyond repair. Meaning that hearing aids won't help so the ability to sort out sounds and background noises, requiring two function ears, is gone from my life. So settings like sitting at a large family dinner or in a crowded room with people chatting means that I will be sitting there with a dumb half-smile on my face because I don't understand a word of what is being said when there is more than one voice/sound going on at the same time.

"Protect your right ear" was the message from the audiologist. "Or you might end up in a world of complete silence." Again, hearing aids won't help.

Normal conversation is at about 50-60 decibels. Sudden noises at 120 decibels can cause immediate damage.

A 22 is maybe 140-150 decibels. But 9mm or a 45 ACP and just about everything else...rifle, handgun and shotgun is about 160 decibels or above.

Your out of the box hearing protection is going to be around 30 decibels of protection.

That's a recipe for hearing damage.

What is your solution?

IN PARTICULAR...what do the noise canceling devices like the Walker Razor or the Axil devices actually work? The ones that say they have electronics that can cancel sharp noises. What decibel level does a gunshot end up being with those devices?

by BanjerMan Thu Mar 28 2024, 15:26

Boisepaw - my response isn't about hearing protection rather your hearing loss and your comment about hearing aids not being able to help. I experienced a similar hearing loss several years ago....lost everything in my left ear. One of the audiologist I saw suggested I try "cross over" hearing aids. With cross over hearing aids, you wear hearing aids in both ears....the one in your bad ear is a receiver/transmitter and it moves sound from your deaf side into your good ear....the hearing aide in your good ear is just a receiver. It's been a life changer for me. I can hear sounds and conversations happening on my left (bad) side almost as good as I could before I lost the hearing. Another amazing thing that the audiologist told me would happen and it has, after wearing the crossovers for about 6 weeks, my brain somehow adjusted to where the sound inputs come from and I now can tell when I'm hearing something on my bad side instead of all the sounds appearing to come from the right ear. Granted all the sound still goes into my right ear, but somehow my brain has figured out which side things are happening....again, no BS....Crossover hearing aids are the answer for folks like us. I would ask an audiologist about them. As for shooting, I don't shoot with my hearing aids in, I wear a set of Walker ear muffs, rated at 27db in addition to foam earplugs. Its not ideal not being able to hear on one side at the range, but the RSO's all know and don't make a big deal of it for me. Hope this helps.