Your sense of hearing is crucial in your life and when it’s gone, there will be no natural way for it to return But strangely, the general public tends to disregard hearing loss. In fact, permanent hearing loss affects one in every eight people (nearly 30 million people) over the age of 12 in the United States alone.
While there are treatments that can help you regain your hearing, like hearing aids, it’s such a simple thing to protect your ears from the start to prevent avoidable hearing loss.
Here are five easy ways that you can protect your hearing:
Earbuds should be avoided
Earbuds are one of the biggest threats to hearing health today since they’ve come packaged with mobile devices going back to the first MP3 devices in the early 2000s. These little devices fit snugly into the ear canal and pump sound straight into the inner ear and most smartphones come with them. You can get irreversible hearing damage by listening to a movie or music on your mobile device at max volume for just 15 minutes. Earmuff style headphones, particularly the ones with noise canceling technology, would be a better choice. No matter what devices you use, you should follow the 60/60 rule – keep the volume at 60% maximum and only use the devices for 60 minutes per day.
Lower the volume
Your hearing can be damaged by other things besides earbuds. If you routinely listen to the TV or radio at high volumes over prolonged periods, your hearing can also be damaged. You’ll also want to steer clear of situations where loud sounds are constant, like construction zones, concerts, and shooting ranges. Steering clear of these situations might only be possible in a perfect world, particularly if you’re a construction worker or a musician. If that’s the case, then you’ll want to pay attention to the next item on the list.
Use hearing protection
Hearing protection is crucial if you work in a setting or enjoy hobbies that expose you to loud noises. 85 decibels over a period of 15 minutes is enough to cause hearing loss. To put that in perspective:
- The noise of a construction site can be over 130 decibels and many workers spend 40 or more hours every week there
- Over a one hour visit to the indoor gun range, your ears are repeatedly exposed to gunfire that clocks in at over 150 decibels on average.
- The majority of concerts are between 100 and 120 decibels with headliners commonly playing for about an hour and 20 minutes
The takeaway here is that you should purchase some kind of hearing protection like earmuffs or earplugs if you engage in any of these activities.
Take auditory breaks
Sometimes you just need to give your ears a rest. If you participated in any of the activities listed above, you really should make sure to take some quiet time to yourself so your ears can rest and recuperate, even if you were using ear protection. So after you leave a concert, you most likely shouldn’t jump into your car and crank music.
Check your medicine
Your medicine could actually have a significant effect on your hearing. There are certain medicines that have been proven to cause hearing loss including some heart and cancer medicines, aspirin, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory medication. Fortunately, medication related hearing loss normally only happens when more than one of these medications are taken together making it far less common.
Are you suffering from hearing loss and want to find new treatment? Schedule an appointment with us for a hearing assessment.
Resources
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/how_does_loud_noise_cause_hearing_loss.html
https://armeddefense.org/hearing-protection
https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/tf3092
