Hearing Loss? No way, not me.
So you like to go clubbing every Saturday night? Maybe you just go down to the pub on Fridays? You like to turn your music up loud when you’re cleaning, studying, or at the gym? Ever get that ringing in your ears after you’ve been in the club for hours, or when you are on your way home from a gig? That’s called tinnitus and it’s your ears not so silently begging you to lay off the loud sounds for a while.
Permanent hearing loss can occur at one significantly loud moment, but more commonly, it’s a gradual decline where loud sounds from the clubs, or concerts and festivals damage the hair cells in your inner ear. The first few occasions your ears may recover, but when excessive loud noise becomes a regular thing, your ears will no longer be able to bounce back as well. The effect of noise on our hearing is cumulative, and irreversible. Your hearing will decline and you’ll be suffering from sensorineural hearing loss — something completely preventable.
Noise induced hearing loss is the label given to hearing loss that occurs through extensive exposure to loud sounds. Hearing loss can begin to take place when a person is exposed to sounds that exceed 75 decibels. Decibels are the measurement of how loud or soft a noise is. To provide some context, the hum of a fridge measures at 45 decibels and a conversation is 60 decibels, whereas city traffic can become as high as 85 decibels, and clubs and live concerts can exceed more than 100 decibels. Noise at 100 decibels or over can cause damage after only 15 minutes of exposure.
Noise induced hearing loss can happen to anyone, including children, teenagers, adults, and older people. Though studies show that while young people are aware that hearing loss can happen, they believe that it won’t happen, and that their hearing will remain intact in loud environments. Controversially, a study by Hearing Australia showed that more than 60% of young Australians said they have experienced tinnitus — that annoying ringing in your ears — at some point in time. Fact: experiencing tinnitus after noise exposure means that the noise was loud enough to damage your hearing! Young Australians, please listen, hearing damage is real and it will happen to you if you don’t look after your ears.
There are some protective measures you can take to look after the precious cartilage on either side of your head, starting with awareness. Hearing Australia’s study showed 30% of young Australians think their ears will heal after internal damage, and 10% believe that a doctor can fix hearing loss without assistive aids. This is not true, hearing loss can be permanent. Next, try to limit the amount of time you spend in places that expose you to loud noise; take a break while you’re clubbing or at the gym. And when you are exposed to unavoidable loud noise, use ear plugs to reduce the sound volume reaching your ear. Alternatively, use a personal music device with noise cancelling headphones so that you can control the noise volume and don’t have to compete with background noise.
Ultimately the best cure for hearing loss is prevention, but there are other ways to enhance your listening once the damage has been done. Not all is lost for music lovers, binge watchers, professional communicators, or anyone who values listening to a companion speak.
The 21st century has provided millennial's with the technology to overcome hearing loss. Hearing aids and assistive listening devices provide hearing loss suffers with a solution to their partial deafness. Hearing technology focuses on providing people with clean and precise sounds without the need to increase the volume to hear well, and it avoids damaging the hearing further. Hearing devices will make a significant positive impact on people who feel as though they won’t be able to hear well again.
