Hey all!
I don't know why I didn't think to join earlier but I've been experiencing Meniere's like symptoms on and off for 3 years with a soft diagnosis by my ENT mid last year. I've had a hard time with headohones since.
Prior to Meniere's, I wore headphones more than not, but now I almost never use them. I've seen a few mentions of bone conduction (BC) headphones being good for people in this subreddit but the warnings online that BC can cause vertigo is off-putting to say the least.
I'd love to hear from people with and without Meniere's whether they find BC has made their symptoms worse or if they were unaffected.
I have partial hearing loss but I know that the hearing loss is internal and won't be bypassed by using BC. Just want to use other experiences to guage the risk of triggering my symptoms.
Thanks!
Standard headphones and earphones cause me BPPV (vertigo). Could bone conduction headphones be a good alternative for me?
Possibly! This is a difficult one to answer, but if what causes your vertigo is the seal over, or in your ear and the change in pressure that results, bone conduction does not seal anything. Therefore, it shouldn’t alter the pressure in your ears.
This is not a guarantee because we aren’t medical professionals. The canals of the ear are complex, as is the interplay with the ear’s connection to sinuses, and vertigo has a number of different causes. But, if it’s the change in air pressure that is your main culprit, have you tried open-back headphones, which generally have very little in the way of air pressure change by virtue of being open? Clamping force may also play a role, so perhaps an open-back headphone like the AKG K240, which tends to have a looser fit and is very much an open-back design, could also work.
What are the best bone conduction headphones?
The Aftershokz Aeropex are the best bone conduction headphones: they use Bluetooth 5.0 technology, has an eight-hour battery life, and are IP67-rated. To learn more, check out our list of the best bone conduction headsets.
Can I use bone conduction headphones with tinnitus?
Tinnitus typically is a product of the brain in response to hearing loss. Bone conduction headphones won’t cure your tinnitus, but they’re safe to use.
I was super excited about these because over the years, I've started to care a little less about sound quality and more about convenience, daily use, safety, etc. Shokz seemed like a great idea because bone conduction obviously keeps your ear canal open, and the design made it sleek enough to wear them at work without standing out too much.
But has anyone else felt super dizzy and uncomfortable wearing these? It almost feels like my head is "tightening" on the inside. It seems pretty expected though, given that it's bone conduction and basically shaking/vibrating against your skull. Maybe I'm just sensitive.