What is the best type of hearing protection to use?

Question: What is the best type of hearing protection to use?

Answer: Perfect timing for your question since October is National Protect Your Hearing Month.

For the best hearing protection, three factors must be considered: the type of noise; the amount of noise reduction needed, and the amount of functional hearing required for the situation.

One example might be a construction worker using a jack hammer. His best protection is to use solid insertable plugs within the ear canals and layer with adequate, well-sealed headphones over the ears. Another example could be a musician who needs to hear his music and those around him but also wishes to protect his hearing from hazardous output levels. He may need custom made filtered musician earplugs that allow conversational sounds yet compress noise levels in the environment.