Patent ID: 8474571

Claim:
A stethoscope, including: a chest piece; a head piece; and a stethoscope tube assembly coupled between the chest piece and the head piece, wherein the head piece includes at least one ear piece assembly including: an ear tip; a bearing mounted to the ear tip; a housing body having a longitudinal axis and a proximal end portion, wherein the proximal end portion defines a tubular cavity, a distal portion of the ear tip and at least a portion of the bearing are positioned within the tubular cavity such that the ear tip has freedom to rotate about the longitudinal axis relative to the housing body and to undergo limited off axis angular movement relative to said housing body, and the proximal end portion of the housing body is configured to limit off axis angular movement of the ear tip relative to said housing body but to allow the limited off axis angular movement of the ear tip relative to said housing body.