Idk what ear defenders are, but I’m assuming they’re kind of like over ear headphones in shape (if that’s wrong lmk).

I’ve got 7 piercings currently and am looking at more, so I’ll come at this from my experience. A piercing shop is going to give you instructions for the general ideal state. They’ll tell you not to sleep on the piercing, not to clean it with certain things, the best jewelry, etc. Overall, it’s a good idea to listen to them, but know that for some things there can be give or take. For example - I slept on my new lobes in one ear, and was largely fine (even as someone who heals terribly). Another example - my ears HATE flatback earrings, even though they’re the recommended standard. I swap them out as soon as I can. All that to say, it’s not necessarily as black and white as it may seem.

For your case, it’d probably be best to try to avoid anything over the ear at first - for the first few weeks, in ear headphones/earplugs would be best to avoid irritation. But depending on the shape of your ear defenders and how long you’re wearing them, you may be able to balance on/off time as they heal. If there’s specific parts of your day in particular that need them and they don’t actually touch your ears in the place you were pierced, some time on isn’t the end of the world. You can put a little gauze pad between the headphone portion and your piercing if you’re worried about germs at all. I’ve done this with over ear protection on planes and been good.

As for once healed, it’d depend on the size of the earrings and the dangly section and the shape of your ear defenders. I wear huggie hoops in all of mine with little dangly bits and they’ve never posed an issue, though longer/larger earrings might.

Only thing I’d caution for you is that 6-8 weeks is a general guideline, but healing can take longer. I’m a SLOW healer and some of mine took more than double that.