Open headers, air tools, hammering, ringing in the ears head count, young gun warning

Well I guess I am lucky no major loss of hearing I've worked w/equipment all my life like saws wood chippers not to mention 80's rock and hot rods w/ almost no hearing loss or ring tones dumb luck and genetics I guess

 

I worked around airplanes for a while and did not use hearing protection all of the time. Between that and working in a body shop and not always using protection I managed to blow out an eardrum about a year ago. My hearing never fully recovered and I am now mostly deaf in one ear. I do use hearing protection all the time now. The worst pain I have ever felt is a blown eardrum.

 

I went to a Bruce Springsteen concert in august in Richmond, VA. Front row center stage. Could barely hear anything for 3 days after. I now have a constant ringing in my ears...and i'm only 24 Needless to say since then I've been very vigilant about wearing hearing protection, just hoping the ringing will go away. It made me mad too, as I intended to bring earplugs to the concert, but forgot them at home.

 

thats the dumbest thing i've ever heard, saying people going deaf from loud noise is a myth? and even with ear plugs you can still hear the stuff you talked about just fine. and why don't you ask the guys who lost limbs or died,no wait,you can't!! before some of the safety gear in the "good old days" a lot of people did things different before we knew better. I have a pair of safety glasses around here somewhere with part of a 1" drill bit embedded in them, thats after it went through the face shield I was wearing, I guess it would have been tougher if i hadn't worn anything and was just blind in one eye now. yea eye patches are real cool. as far as young guys not loosing their hearing from the boom boxes,it takes a while before it shows up, ake some time to learn how the ear works,then you'll understand why your hearing gets damaged permanently. saying loud noise won't hurt you by saying some people aren't deaf, is like the smoking never kills anyone because so and so lived to 90 and smoked since they were 5 myth. I just buried my best friend 6 months ago, smoked 2 packs a day for 40 years, died of lung cancer that spread to every organ in his body. was down to 78 pounds before he died,his oxygen tank weighed more then he did, but I guess that couldn't have been caused by smoking, thats just a myth!! your arguement makes as much sense.

 

Like most guys, I was young and immortal and used to shoot guns, run open headers, etc.etc. without protection. At first the ringing was so slight I could only hear it when it was very quiet, then one day last year I walked into my shop and my son was using an air grinder (with ear protection) and I didn't have any protection on. I was only there for a minute but that was the minute that pushed my ears over the edge. My ringing has worsened to the point that I hear it all the time now, and its godamn annoying!! You youngsters listen to yer pappy's and use that ear protection !!

 

My hearing is not that great. I have one ear that rings after a round of ear infections in 1990. In my mis-spent youth, I was big into heavy duty fireworks, guns, loud cars. I worked in auto shops with grinders, impact guns, hissing air hoses, etc. Then the time spent with loud cars, loud music and stock cars chipped in on the problem.

I have my hearing tested once in a while, my loss is consistent with exposure to heavy artillery. I keep hearing protectors in my tool box, wear them to race tracks and when I do loud things around the house.

I'm probably a candidate for a hearing aid within a few years, but if that helps me, I'll go for it.

Bob

 

I hear (read) that " THE WHO" is going to change their name
to "THE HUH?).

 

Hey Brewster, are your ears ringing from the 2/15/09 jam session in the shop

 

i have had tinitus and hearing loss for about 8 years now i have hearing aids and i wear them once in a while i am only 29 sounds like yours lasted longer then mine did.

 

I only have about half my hearing due to lot of gun shooting , open headers , bass player in band in the 70's and so on . We never knew what it would due to us until it was too late . My ears have been ringing for years and I just put up with it . I have tried hearing help but the ringing is still there !
I have been using all the hearing protection for the past 6 years to save what's left . I had that hearing test when I was 48 , now I am 55 now ! It really sucks not hearing everything that's out there !

 

Man I knew I wasnt the only one. Army told me how bad it was in 98 when I got out. Two wives later and one whirlwind of a life and I truely today miss being able to hear like normal people. If its not ringing it the muffled sounds of a game show on tv like when I was a little kid and I was supposed to be napping and I could hear the kinder teacher watching as the world turns. I think it makes me crazy sometimes. Hell I'm into old cars it must have already got me.

Skullz

 

It took me a while to learn to say "Say it again?" instead of "what?" - something about my tone of voice makes it sound offensive to folks.

20 Years on the Job now. from dragsters to street cars and all that goes along with each. I can't hear a damn thing.

 

Aspirin can also cause ringing in the ears in some people. I know this for a fact !!!!!

 

the worst thing for me is feeling like a dumb person with nothing to say when in a social situation like a loud ish pub or bar. just cant follow conversations around a table. hate it.
Have tinnitus, and bad hearing loss, came from an ear infection when i was five. Guns, DJ-ing and grinders dont help either.

 

Probably 30 years ago I spent a lot of summer weekends taking starting line photos, with no hearing protection, at a couple of local dragstrips. No nitro, mostly carbureted gas burning cars with open headers. It didn't take long for it to get really annoying when I'd try to go to sleep that night and hear that ringing in my ears. Same thing after a day at the US Nationals trying to get to sleep at the campground that night. It didn't take long to figure out the solution and start sleeping more comfortably.

And now if I'm spectating at the toilet bowl races or drag races, at a concert or in a bar with a live band, running a lawnmower or snowblower, using a circular saw or air tools, I'm wearing ear muffs or earplugs. Though I will usually splurge at Indy and listen to one fueler or funny car pass wide open. Then the earplugs go back in and I don't have to listen to Bob Frey say "in the house" for the hundreth time that weekend.

And I think I'm going to start wearing them when I go into the Best Buy store and they have all the stereo and home theatre equipment cranked up in the background.

 

Now these ads are popping up everywhere for pills that help this 'ringing ears' problem. Has anyone here tried these new remedies?

 

Here in New Zealand we have an additional compulsory tax that goes to an accident compensation corporation for helping recover from injury ,be it sports or work related. Some of the older folk who injured their hearing in the young days(those over 60) have been able to prove work related hearing loss and been given 5 to $9000 hearing aids. Now days there is no excuse for hearing loss with the promotion of potential damage and protection available
WHAT WHAT DID YOU SAY>

 

ive got it bad ,more like standing in a swamp with a million crickets at night than ringing.

 

fwiw i found that the ringing does tend to become less noticeable after time .. you get so used to it that it just fades into the background a lot of the time .. but its always there if you pay attention to it, and yeah, it was incredibly annoying the first few years.

my downfall .. motorcycles firstly and then working as a tree surgeon for years intially w no hearing protection until first one ear and then both had it .. what a dumbass

there are some treatments that claim to help but none that are 100% reliable as far as i know.

 

I got hearing aids 3 years ago. People look at you differently when you have them, kind of the same way when I got glasses at 12 years old. 50 years ago that was. Ya, stock car racing, reving up engines in the garage with open headers was cool.

 

My tinnitus started in 1986, a ear infection on one side, completely out of the blue. Went to bed just fine, woke up with severe vertigo, the damage was done, ringing and significant hearing loss.

I'm not a big fan of doctor visits, but whenever someone complains about a possible ear infection, I suggest strongly that they move and move FAST. Sure wish I'd had some warning.

 

Huh?

 

I've had tinitus for years it unfortunatly runs in my family. I'm sure that all the loud things that I have done in life hasn't helped the matter.

I have learned to ignor the ringing. Sometimes when I'm trying to sleep it is a problem but if I don't press my ear into the pillow it helps a little. The ringing and static seems to be worse when my ears are covered.

I haven't tried the miracle hearing aids or anything. You just learn to live with it.

 

I "hear ya man" (pun intended), same for me. I find that I nod my head quite a bit, not always knowing what I am nodding to (yeah, I know). I also find that I am less and less likely to place myself in those situations anymore. Protect your hearing, eyes, and lungs people.

 

I don't have tininitus that I know of, but I can't hear a damn thing if there's any little amount of background noise at all.

Really has hurt my social life - it's real difficult to make conversation with a female if you can't understand what the hell she's saying.

 

I saw Deep Purple in Detroit on the "Perfect Strangers" tour. When Richie did the solo for Highway Star the crowd whistling and screaming nearly drowned out the band. My ears rang for 2 days. Since that time I had to really cover for nitro cars. I recently changed the exhaust on my sled because I could hear it in my sleep after riding. While it's not the 1st thing on my mind in the shop I'm prepared for loud stuff when it happens.

 

I to have Tinitus,I was a over the road truck driver for 31 year's,never climbed in to any truck without rolling down the d/s window at least 3 or 4" all the time listening to the wine of the engine. Wind through the open window, the last 14 year's never played the radio,could not hear it. Listening to all the SHIT on the CB . It all play's into this.

 

I ran high power impact guns tighening bolts on steel structures for years.
Often there would be a dozen guys rattling bolts at the same time in the same general area. The noise was like high caliber automatic weapons going off in your hand all day long. Hearing damage is irreversable. Now
I can't hear certain tones very well at all. PROTECT YOUR HEARING!
MickeyC

 

This year is the 50th anniversary of putting on my first hearing aid. When I was 10, a new drug called streptomycin was given to me for a throat infection, and it was toxic to the auditory nerves. I got through high school with no aids but finally got one when I entered college. The tinnitus never goes away but it gets to where you don't notice it unless you think about it. When I have an audiogram the high-freq tones blend with the tinnitus and I won't be able to tell what's a tone I'm being tested on and what's tinnitus. The newer hearing aids, digital models, can be tuned to reduce the effects of tinnitus and background noise. For years I had automatic hearing protectors around shooting ranges and race tracks -- just turn 'em off! But the new ones "dampen" the offending sounds but let them come through. I may have to check out some of the new noise-cancelling hearing protectors instead of just muffs.
You guys that haven't gotten tested yet, do so as soon as you can. The tests are usually free if you buy aids from that vendor, and payment plans can lessen the pain in the wallet. If the audiologist says you need aids, work with him or her until you get one that you are happy with; no sense in being uncomfortable. Registered, highly trained audiologists are very interested in your happiness, your quality of life. Fifty, sixty years ago they were like snake oil salesmen or used car dealers but that's not the case now. That being said, there is a certain period of acclimitization that you will have to go through; it's like learning how to hear all over again. Then with a little practice you will be able to hear your female dinner companion in a crowded restaurant.
But stay out of noisy bars -- they're bad for you anyway! Din't yore momma tail you thayut?
Fearless

 

Well, I had blocked it out as usual until this thread came up. Now the ring is at full volume. Too many years in a fabrication shop with my dad who would hit the loudest most ringing piece of metal available when your muffs were off. I wear protection all the time now, if I don't the ringing will be so loud that I can't sleep.