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October is National Protect Your Hearing Month.
The most effective way to protect your hearing is through prevention. Learn what you should watch for and what things you should avoid.
What symptoms and signs point toward hearing loss?
- Asking people to repeat themselves.
- Difficulty hearing people talking through the phone.
- Find it hard to keep up with a conversation.
- Listening to music or television with a higher volume than others.
- Difficulty hearing other people clearly or misunderstanding them, especially in noisy places.
Signs of hearing loss in babies are:
- Not startled by loud noises.
- Notice you when they see you but do not respond when you call their name.
- Hear some sounds and not others.
- Does not turn toward voices by around 4 months.
Here are 5 ways to prevent hearing loss.
1. Protect your hearing at loud activities and events. When you attend concerts, sporting events or go to loud venues in general, you should:
- Consider wearing earplugs.
- Take breaks away from the loud noise.
- Allow your ears to recover for approximately 15-18 hours after you’ve had exposure to loud noises.
- Don’t stand near the source of loud noise, such as speakers.
2. Take precautions when your workplace exposes you to loud noise. If your current role at work exposes you to loud equipment or loud noises for long periods of time, speak with your human resources department about protection. Suggest earmuffs, earplugs, or ask for frequent breaks away from the noise.
3. Avoid loud music. Listening to loud music through earphones or headphones is dangerous. Instead, you can:
- Take a break for 5 minutes every hour.
- Use noise-canceling headphones so the volume can be lowered.
- Set the volume so that you can hear the music but not higher.
4. Refrain from putting objects in your ears. Objects inserted into the ears can cause impacted earwax, a perforated eardrum, or damage the skin. Swim plugs when in water are safe but be sure to dry your ears after swimming or bathing.
5. Get your hearing tested. Hearing tests will help you to have early detection should you start to lose your hearing. Many places offer hearing tests for free. If you are at a higher risk of noise-induced hearing loss, you should get regular check-ups.
How loud is too loud?
As a general rule, if you have to raise your voice to be heard over the noise, then it’s probably too loud. Noise levels are measured in decibels or dB. Take a look at some examples of levels of noise.
Things like lawnmowers or heavy highway traffic tend to hover between 80 and 90 dBs, while fireworks, gunshots, or stereos turned up to full volume are around 130 to 140 dBs. Normal conversation is typically around 60 dBs. If you are exposed to 85 dBs or higher on a regular basis, then you should proactively schedule frequent check-ups to get ahead of hearing loss.
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Persistent loud noise on a daily basis can cause permanent physical and psychological damage, including but not limited to:
- Complete hearing loss
- Short term or long-term tinnitus
- Physical stress
- Psychological stress
- Muffled hearing
- Limited productivity
- Inability to hear warning sirens or announcements
- Impeded concentration
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- High blood pressure (temporarily)
- Cardiovascular conditions
Take precautions to protect your hearing, as well as your children’s. If signs start to arise of hearing loss, do not let it go untreated. Take action and schedule an appointment with your primary care physician to go over your concerns.
Taking care of yourself should be a priority. Check out our blog post to learn the signs that you may be placing yourself too low on the to-do list.
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