Custom Hearing Protection

Part of our mission at Hearing Associates is to help prevent unnecessary hearing loss by providing you with custom hearing protection products from Westone and Sound Gear. We offer a variety of products to suit your lifestyle, preferences and listening environments.

What is Custom Hearing Protection?

They’re protective devices that are tailored to fit your unique ear shape and reduce or block the harmful effects of noise exposure. Custom hearing protection is made by taking an impression of your ears to create personalized earmolds. The process allows your audiologist to provide you with insertable devices that fit snugly into your ear canal.

Custom hearing protection is available in a variety of styles, including earplugs and earmuffs. They typically offer better sound cancellation and comfort than generic earplugs since they’re specifically crafted to accommodate your ear shape.

Contact us to learn more about custom hearing protection.

Types of Custom Hearing Protection

Shooting and Hunting Earplugs

If you’re a hunter or participate in shooting sports, you protect your hearing with custom-made earplugs. Sound Gear and Westone offer hunting ear protection devices in several styles and colors. The earmolds amplify sounds within a safe hearing range but automatically block noise once it exceeds 95 decibels. That’s crucial as gunshots can reach up to 170 decibels, which can cause instant auditory damage.

Musician’s Earplugs

Whether you’re a professional musician or enjoying jamming as a hobby, it’s crucial to protect your hearing from harmful decibel levels. Musician’s earplugs have filters that reduce sound volume across all frequencies without completely blocking them. That allows you to enjoy the essence of different instruments and vocals without having to worry about noise damage. This type of hearing protection is available with different noise reduction ratings so you can choose the right style for your needs.

In-Ear Monitors for Musicians and Music Audiophiles

With in-ear monitors, you can adjust how you hear the stage mix and block unwanted noise during your performance. You can use these devices to personalize audio from gaming systems and computers to suit your listening requirements. Starkey offers SoundGear Tunz, custom headphones and stage monitors designed specifically for your unique ear shape. You can balance rich tones and isolate sounds while protecting your hearing.

Custom Earplugs

Custom-fit earbuds attach to headphones and fit perfectly to your ear shape. They reduce background noise and ensure your earbuds deliver higher quality sounds, eliminating the need to turn up the audio. We make custom earbuds that suit most major brands except AirPods. Hearing Associates also offers custom headphones that don’t require earbuds, so you can enjoy music, TV audio and game sound effects.

Earplugs for Swimming

Custom-fit swim molds keep your ears dry while you’re in the water. This type of hearing protection can help prevent swimmer’s ear and moisture damage to children’s ear tubes while bathing and swimming.

Find the right hearing protection at Hearing Associates.

Benefits of Wearing Custom Hearing Protection

You can wear custom earmolds wherever you encounter loud noises. Custom hearing protection is designed for all-day use and provides better defense and greater comfort than store-bought earplugs.

Benefits include:

Enhanced noise reduction: The tailor-made design offers better sealing capabilities and more effective noise reduction, allowing you to protect your ears from higher decibel levels. Generic earplugs may not fit your ears properly, allowing sounds to get through.

Comfort: Most store-bought earplugs are foam or silicone devices that come in standardized sizes, which may prove uncomfortable depending on your ear shape. Custom hearing protection is made to your unique canal shape and measurements.

Durability: Custom earmolds are constructed of high-quality materials that last longer than disposable alternatives. They’re easy to care for and reusable.

Better sound quality: Basic foam earplugs aren’t designed to filter certain frequencies and can make listening difficult. You can purchase custom earplugs with filters that still allow in sounds at a safe volume.

Invest in Your Hearing Health

Hearing Associates offers custom hearing protection products to all our patients. Musician and shooting earplugs, hearing protection and custom-fit earbuds require roughly two weeks to complete. Swim molds have a shorter processing time. Call 888.760.2032 or contact us online to schedule an appointment at one of our locations in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota.

FAQs

Who should consider using custom hearing protection?

You may require custom earplugs if you work in noisy environments frequently, attend loud events, ride a motorcycle, participate in watersports or shoot guns regularly.

What should I do if my custom earplugs feel uncomfortable?

Contact Hearing Associates and we’ll schedule an appointment to adjust your earplugs or create new ones.

Can I still hear conversations while wearing custom hearing protection?

It depends on the type of protection and the filters in the devices. Some hearing protection has flat attenuation filters that decrease noise volume but allow you to still hear sounds, like conversations.

How well does custom hearing protection block out noise?

Noise reduction rating indicates how effectively a pair of earplugs can reduce decibel levels. NRR ratings range from 20 to 35-decibel reduction and offer varying degrees of sound cancellation.