Ear Plugs: Doctor’s Take

Noise pollution is extreme in the city. There are all those festivals, and they are adding to those every year. Gods rarely remembered are now remembered once a year, for their own festivals. The celebrations are the same irrespective of which God it is. There are loud songs played with huge speakers and amplifiers. There are religious mantras chanted on those speakers. Functions like marriages are celebrated the same way publicly. There are processions on all these occasions, with the music mounted on huge trucks, so that it is mobile public music.Then there are those crackers, whose loudness is far beyond the permitted legal limits, and which are burst far beyond the time limit. One wishes for effective ear plugs, so that all this deafening noise can be shut off.
I tried the ear plugs they give out in airlines. They did not work for me.
I tried the sound mufflers they use in shooting ranges. They were effective, but they pressed on the ears so much, that one could not wear them for any length of time. I tried putting shaving foam on the external ear. It cut off sound quite a lot, but it was messy. One could not keep it there for prolonged periods anyway, and go about one’s work. Putting alternative music into the ear with iPod would work, but would be as damaging in the long run. Finally I devised ear plugs of my own design.

I took two ear pieces of a stethoscope. These are available in medical instruments shops, and doctors usually have spare pieces from their past purchases of stethoscopes. I filled their holes with candle wax. Then I got ear muffs that people put on their ears to keep out cold from the ears in windy cold seasons. It has a spring in the middles portion and two broad soft pads attached to its ends. One has to put the ear pieces in the ear canal. They would fall off unless supported. The ear muffs are worn over them to keep them in place. This works wonderfully. My readers are free to use them. I request them not to apply for a patent for the design in US. :-)