Your ability to hear is valuable – once you lose it, the likelihood of getting it back in its natural form is not likely. But for some reason, hearing loss tends to go neglected and unchecked in the general population. As a matter of fact, permanent hearing loss impacts one out of eight individuals (nearly 30 million people) over the age of 12 in the United States alone.
While there are treatments that can help you get some hearing back, like hearing aids, it’s such a simple thing to protect your ears from the start to prevent unnecessary hearing loss.
Safeguard your hearing with these five tips:
Don’t use earbuds
Earbuds have been packaged with mobile devices since the early 2000s and are one of the biggest dangers to hearing. Almost every smartphone on the market comes with a set of these little devices that sit snugly in your ear and pump sound directly into your ear canal. You can get irreversible hearing damage by listening to music or a movie on your mobile device at maximum volume for just 15 minutes. Over the ear style headphones, particularly the ones with noise canceling technology, would be a better choice. No matter what sound devices you use, you should stick to the 60/60 rule – keep the volume at 60% maximum and only use the devices for 60 minutes every day.
Keep your volume low
Your hearing can be damaged by other things besides earbuds. If you routinely listen to the radio or TV at loud volumes over prolonged periods, your hearing can also be harmed. Gun ranges, concerts, construction zone, and other loud settings should be avoided. It might be unrealistic to entirely avoid these environments particularly if they’re part of your job. The next item on the list will be significant if you’re in this situation.
Use hearing protection
If you have hobbies or work in a loud setting, it’s crucial that you make use of hearing protection. Hearing loss can happen in just 15 minutes at 85 decibels. To put that in perspective:
- The majority of concerts are between 100 and 120 decibels with headliners commonly playing for around an hour and 20 minutes
- Jackhammers at a construction site produce 130 decibels, which could cause significant harm after a 40-hour workweek
- Over a one hour visit to the indoor shooting range, your ears are repeatedly subjected to gunfire that clocks in at over 150 decibels on average
The moral here is that you should purchase some kind of hearing protection like earmuffs or earplugs if you take part in any of these activities.
Take auditory breaks
Sometimes you just need to give your ears a break. Even if you use ear protection, if you are subjected to loud sounds like these for extended periods, you should take some quiet breaks to give your ears some time to rest. That means, you most likely shouldn’t get into your car and begin blasting loud music right after you leave a 3-hour concert.
Check your medicine
Your hearing could be significantly impacted by the medication you use. Aspirin, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, and certain heart and cancer medications have all been proven to trigger hearing loss. Luckily, medication related hearing loss usually only happens when more than one of these medicines are taken together making it far less common.
Looking to find treatment for your hearing loss? Get in touch with us today to set up a consultation.
Resources
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/how_does_loud_noise_cause_hearing_loss.html
https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/tf3092