How are Custom Molded Earplugs Made?

Earplugs are helpful in providing protection for your ears. There’s plenty of occasions where you might need to invest in earplugs, whether they’re some simple disposable ones or they’ve been custom-made to fit your ear canal perfectly. Custom-molded earplugs are something worth getting if you need them for work or your personal life. Your ear health is important, and a qualified hearing instrument specialist can advise you on the best choice to make regarding hearing protection.

How are custom molded earplugs made?

In order to get custom-molded earplugs, it’s always important to approach the professionals, rather than simply getting them online from some questionable website. To get fitted for earplugs is something that should be a physical experience as handling your ear canal is definitely a thing you want to be careful with. No one wants to cause damage to their own ear canal or drum, and so it’s worth handing it over to the professionals. A hearing instrument specialist will firstly be able to check your ear canals to assess the health of them but to also ensure that it’s clear and ready for the impressions to be made. The next step is the impressions or mold stage, where they’ll inject a material into your ear in order to get the shape of your ears. Each ear canal needs to be measured as there can always be slight differences. The material is usually silicone because it’s the softest material and is also more flexible in nature. This makes it easier for the silicone to shape to your ear pretty much perfectly. When the molds have been made, they’ll be used to create earplugs that are made from a hard material that’s been treated with UV or it’ll likely be soft medical-grade silicone. With the coating of the earplugs, it’ll be given a hypoallergenic one and filters are fitted within the earplug to filter the sound and frequencies properly. Standard, disposable earplugs that aren’t custom-made aren’t going to be as effective or useful in filtering through the noise. The amount of time that it takes for you to receive the custom-molded earplugs is going to be somewhere along the lines of around three weeks. Typically, you should also get the original molds too so that you have a backup pair in an emergency where your custom ones get lost or can’t be used for some reason. And how long do they last? Usually, you’ll get about five years out of these custom-made ones, which in comparison to the wastage on the environment and the amount you would typically spend on disposable ones, it’s worth doing. Most places will guarantee them to last at least two years, so as long as you’re looking after them properly, they’re good value for money. It’s worth doing the calculations on how much you already spend on disposable earplugs and how much you might save by getting custom ones made instead. Adding onto that though that the comfort factor will be much better because it’s fitted to the shape of your ears specifically.

When would you need earplugs?

With any type of earplugs, they’re usually needed in scenarios where you are subjected to loud noise or sounds on a daily basis. This might be attending a rock concert or working as a musician. Our ears are very vulnerable, and therefore, it’s essential that if you have a job or experience that involves excessive noise, you need some form of an earplug to help provide that protective barrier for your ears. You don’t want to subject yourself to excessive sound that one time and then it leads to permanent damage as a result. It’s also worth becoming familiar with what is classed as excessive or loud sound in everyday life. For example, walking past a worksite where diggers are being used or watching a high-speed train go by, exceeds the 85-decibel mark. Anything over that can be potentially damaging to our ears, and so it’s important to take action sooner rather than later. Thinking of getting some custom-molded earplugs made for yourself? Experiencing hearing loss isn’t worth doing when you can take preventive steps to ensure you protect your ears at all costs. You can learn more about how to go about getting custom earplugs made with The Hearing Guy. It’s important to get all the right information so that you can choose the very best services to make the earplugs for you. Get in touch with us by calling our office at (828) 333-5781!