I've never used earplugs whilst gigging & the only thing i notice when i come home from a club is i have to turn the tv up 2 or 3 notches more than usual but by the next day my hearing is back to what i presume is normal.

I take it when your using earplugs you mean you ware them under your earphones whilst your actually mixing ? Is that pratical ? i mean don't you have to turn up the headphone monitor volume up even more than normal ?

Like i say i've never tried it, for all i know their isn't much difference in the sound your ears recieve via the earplug apart from obviously muffling the sound a little.

Would you say you should ware earplugs no matter how big or small the club is ? the one i resident at is quite small & only has like 8 speakers & you can still have a convo with somebody in the dj booth which makes me think i can't be doing to much damage.

It's obvious you need to look after your ears so as part of this thread i also want to ask how you clean your ears. People tell me not to use cotton buds so i haven't for about 3 years now, been trying those drops you put in your ears, seems to do the job although i've never had a big problem with wax. Anybody ever noticed a hot & spicey curry helps melt the wax in your ears making them easier to clean without poking things down your lug hole.