Effective - Wish I had gotten these sooner!
Effective.  Really excited about these.  Wish I had gotten them sooner.  I'm only 3 years out of school, but have noticed that the volume settings on my computer have been creeping up.  Hopefully the hearing loss is transient.<br /><br />Chose these b/c most of the other earplugs I looked at seemed to have an NRR ~12dB or were unrated.<br /><br />These noticeably cut down on the high pitched sounds of the suction and handpiece - So much so that I can no longer depend on my sense of hearing to tell if the drill is spinning fast enough, haha (We have a couple temperamental handpieces).  But that is definitely a trade-off I'm willing to make.  Unexpected side benefit:  I feel more calm/relaxed while working - The high pitched sounds must have been overstimulating and making me feel amped up or something.<br /><br />No problems hearing people talking.  I think I can actually hear my assistant's voice better b/c the other sounds are dampened.<br /><br />Comfortable enough (I haven't tried any others, so I have nothing for comparison).  I leave them in all day.  Ears can start to feel sore by the end of the day, but taking them out at lunch helps.<br /><br />I like the unobtrusive design of the safety lanyard, but there isn't enough space in the carrying case for it unless I squish the earplugs (taking it on/off the plugs is not that easy either and seems to also involve a lot squishing/deforming of the plugs).  That doesn't seem like it would be very good for the earplugs, so I'll leave it off for now, until I can maybe find a roomier case.
Rating: 5 stars