Custom Earplug Care and Hygiene, and When to Replace Them

Everyday habits

• Clean hands. Before you put the earplug in and before you take it out, especially after working with oil, dust or soil.
• A fixed case. An earplug left on a table, in a pocket or on a car seat gets dirty and lost easily. A fixed case solves both problems.
• A personal earplug stays personal. It was made to the measurement of your ear. It is not meant to be passed on to anyone else, not even within the family or the team.
• Clean it as instructed. How to clean it, and what not to use, is given for each type of earplug. If you have lost the instructions, contact us and we will send them again.

Each type and its use

A swimming earplug is exposed to water, a sleep earplug stays in the ear all night, and a noise earplug for work is exposed to dust, heat or sweat. That is why the care and cleaning instructions are given by type and by use. An earmold for a hearing aid involves further considerations, because it is connected to the hearing aid. Tell us which hearing aid it is; there is more detail on the custom earmolds for hearing aids page.

What to check now and then

Every so often, look at the earplug and notice whether anything has changed. These are signs that it is time to contact us:

• The earplug does not go in, or does not sit, as it did at first.
• It moves, works its way out of the ear, or presses somewhere it did not press before.
• You can see a change: a crack, a tear, a change of shape or a change of colour.
• You are using it for something other than what it was ordered for, and it does not feel right.

If so, do not try to repair, cut or file the earplug yourself. Contact us and we will look at the options together. Repair and refit options are checked case by case, and we do not promise a repair or a replacement in advance.

When something in the ear does not feel right

If you have ear pain, irritation that does not go away, discharge or a sudden change in your hearing, stop using the earplug and see a doctor. If there is a sudden drop in hearing, see a doctor without delay. These are medical questions, not questions about the earplug.

When to replace an earplug

There is no single number that suits everyone. It depends on the type of earplug, how often you use it, the conditions you use it in, and whether it still sits well. Rather than waiting for a date, watch for the signs described above. When it is time for a new earplug, you do not always need a new measurement: where suitable, a reorder can be made from the saved measurement. Before that, we check with you whether it can be used, or whether a new measurement is better. Details: Reordering earplugs.

For organisations: looking after earplugs in a team

In a team with many employees, a few simple rules help: each employee keeps their own earplug in their own case, earplugs are not passed from hand to hand, and there is a contact person to go to when an earplug is lost or does not sit well. See also Earplugs for businesses and employees.

More articles and pages

Updated 1 November 2026 · Written by the G-Sound editorial team. General information only; the earplug type and use are decided for each case in the conversation.

More in English

Custom earplugs: all typesReordering earplugsCustom earplugs: questions and answersNoise earplugs for work: what to checkContact G-Sound