Paula Froehle (Dean of Academics @Flashpoint Academy) and Dr. Michael Santucci of Sensaphonics. Dr. Santucci is injecting a silicone mixture into both ears to get a mold of the canals, which can be used to shape a custom pair of earplugs or in-ear monitors.
For our first ever AES event at Flashpoint Academy we had Dr. Michael Santucci come into speak to us about hearing loss and prevention. He gave a brief history on his company Sensaphonics, and how it is applied to various jobs from hearing protection for Space Aviation, to how the head and ears are effected for Automotive racing drivers, and of course protection for musicians and audio engineers. He mentioned that there are no standards at least in the US for hearing conservation, especially within the music industry. People will go to the dentist or the eye doctor for check ups, but don't feel it is necessary to have their hearing checked. Anyone dealing with sound, as a career should have his or her hearing checked regularly. He also discussed on how earwax is good; cleaning your ears is not only dangerous to the inside of your ear, but also really bad for you as time goes on. You could be creating a build up every time you push the q-tips into your ear canal right in front of your eardrum. Earwax actually keeps your inner ears clean, protects them by keeping out unwanted bacteria and getting rid of dead skin cells, and the odor keeps insects out of your ear canals!
An interesting fact to hearing loss is that regardless of what the sound was from, your ear canal resonates at certain frequencies. So no matter what the excessively loud and damaging noise was from, those certain frequencies will deteriorate first. Whether it was a high-pitched guitar or an airplane engine; those being distinct frequencies on different sides of the frequency spectrum, the ear canal will first deteriorate at it's certain frequencies even if the sound(s) were different to the frequency spectrum.
He also showed us his in-ear monitoring systems, which improves: as Dr. Santucci calls it, the "me syndrome". Where on stage you have your wedge monitors and everyone on the stage wants more of themselves in the monitors, creating an on stage monitor level battle, which the sound reinforcement on top of that has to battle with the on stage monitors. Creating a very loud environment on the stage for the players and even the audience.
In the end, the best prevention from hearing damage, beyond ear-plugs, is acoustical treatment of the work environment.
