earbuds

Thanks. I might try a pair, but all the ear-squashing ones I've worn get uncomfortable pretty fast on a coast-to-coast flight. It isn't that they aren't soft enough, it's just that they have to grip fairly hard just to stay on.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I typically leave them on for most of a 15+-hour flight so you should be able to handle them for four or five hours. ;-)

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Just because you have ears of steel is no reason to go round being all superior about it. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

And yet people with hearing aids wear them every day without a problem! I can't recall a doctor saying they should never be worn either. Of course it does help if you clean them occasionly, but I am willing to bet the people who use them everyday don't clean them everyday. And don't get ear infections every week either.

Trevor.

I use my Etymotic buds frequently, and I wash the ear seals every time. I couldn't imagine doing otherwise. Infection is unlikely as I don't let other people use them, but it would give me the creeps to put them in dirty.

The doctor was, of course, talking about Q-tips when he made his elbow remark. For a normal, healthy person the ears are self-cleaning and need no extra prodding, which is more likely to push the accumulated wax up against the ear drum than remove it.

A point that seems to have been lost in the retelling.

Yeah, I could never see much point in Q-tips for the ears. They do have other uses IME.

Trevor.

Change of context is all part of the fun of language.

Plenty of other uses, none of which involve poking them into body orifices. They are designed entirely wrongly for such purposes.

...and there is no way to "clean them" with your elbow. You have to get that ear wax out with a q-tip or pickup key or something a lot smaller than an elbow....... Another problem with ear buds is they don't breathe, so they get hot.... They block out air circulation that allows the heat to disperse. this is why I prefer the small, non noise blocking earphones. But as has ben pointed out above, these don't block out noise. So, you need to find something that blocks out noise, but allows air to circulate inside the ear, and I don't know anything that can do both of these two things that's small enough to wear.

Some of us don't live in humid climates ;-) ...Jim Thompson

Many hearing aids don't allow the ear to breathe (BTE with ear moulds in particular), and yet people manage to wear them all day. While it may not be ideal, especially on hot days, I don't know of any medical risk, or surely they would not be sold by the million? Presumably it's a case of getting used to it.

Trevor.

Just because you have a seriouis and self-destructive phobia about using generally recognized and accepted safety appliances does't make you any kind of a reliable authority.

That's because they use ordinary sanitary practices like keeping them and their ears rasonably clean.

Let's face it, there is a well-known phobia that a tiny minority have about putting things like this in the ear. It's probably related to OCD.

(...)

One would want to cast around a hollow plastic tube to vent air back into the canal in order to avoid an ER visit to remove the finished casting... :)

--Winston

I wasn't suggesting pushing it all the way down to the eardrum, silly.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

You're even more clueless than DimBulb. Good job!

I didn't figure you were. Casting a piston to the inside of the ear canal and then removing it is gonna cause a significant vacuum. Sounds painful, at least. At worst, a burst eardrum and inner ear infection? Ewww!

--Silly Winston

Nope, that's how ear moulds are made for hearing aids, and custom fitted IEM's. Of course one should probably know what they are doing before attempting it.

Trevor.

Doesn't matter. A half a gram of media is enough to rip your eardrum if you are pulling a vacuum on it as you draw out the casting. Even if it only goes half way in.

Good call, Winston.