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Are custom acrylic earmolds effective at blocking loud music?

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I attended a wedding recently and the music was loud! My phone registered 115+db in the low frequencies for the subwoofer and mostly below 100db in the mid frequencies. This went on for about 45 minutes during the dance party.

I muted my hearing aids (Oticon Real 1) to avoid any damage. I have custom acrylic earmolds. Are these effective as ear plugs? I can’t seem to find any noise reduction specs for hearing aid earmolds, but custom acrylic earplugs online are typically rated for 30db reduction. Any audiologists here can chime in if it’s similar for hearing aid earmolds? How does the compare for vented vs unvented?

What makes me a little concerned is my earmolds have vent holes and the music did sound a bit quieter compared to taking my hearing aids off, but not as quiet as plugging the vent holes with my fingers. Is this something I should be concerned about? Which frequencies can pass through and is their magnitude still attenuated through the vent holes?

Occluding acrylic (assuming no slit venting and a good seal) will give a maximum of about 35dB reduction in sound intensity.

Once you vent there’s a bit of maths involved, given the width length plus profile change of the vent, pitch of the incoming sound, resonance of the vent, plus the resonance of the residual ear canal. Which results in a very complicated transfer function that you’ll need to apply to each incoming note . Or you can just it with your choice of swept signal.

Or you can just infer that the smaller the hole, the more the sound is reduced. Better still: if you’re going to a gig, temporarily put some blu-tack in the hole.

Geez I SO empathize with you!!! I’ve been to more than one so-called “party” where the music was so loud I nearly tossed my cookies. In fact, I’ve even been to a couple restaurants that not only have music BLASTING all night, but then every party at every table SHOUTS to be heard. Those events are so physically damaging to me that I try to avoid them at all costs.

Thing is, our aids may shut OFF (or be put in MUTE), but with the vent holes and not perfect fit, sound will still enter our ear canal and HAMMER our ears till we go deafer (well, most folks could, but I’m about as deaf as one can be!).

I sadly gave up shotgun shooting cuz I simply could NOT protect my hearing even with proper earmuffs AND a pair of custom molded plugs in my ears. I have zero margin to lose, so I have to take avoidance action to preserve my hearing.

I think if you’re in a setting like that: dinner party, wedding, hey whatever, you need to discreetly and FIRMLY git hella outta there. Either tell folks WHY you’re leaving, or just slip away for your own good.

I was attending a loud soiree with the Atty Gen’l of INDIA years ago, and literally got up and walked away. My mother-in-law was NOT happy, but I was real blunt: “Not gonna damage my hearing any more cuz I have no margin to spare.”

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