Listen Up: Hearing Loss Guide With 5 Steps to Help Keep Your Hearing Health in Check Promoted Women's Health Family Health Kids' Health Men's Health
Taking care of your hearing is essential for preserving your general health. It entails taking preventative steps to safeguard and maintain one's hearing abilities and seeking the proper solutions should hearing loss or related difficulties develop. In Canada alone, three in five people report having some degree of hearing loss.
With hearing health so important, here are the basics of keeping your hearing health in check:
1. Know Your Noise Exposure
It's crucial to know how loud is too loud when it comes to noise exposure. Long-term exposure to loud noises can cause permanent hearing loss or other issues with hearing. Typically, above 85 decibels (dB), the threshold for potential injury rises exponentially as sound intensity increases.
To put it into perspective, average environmental noise levels, such as those in a quiet office or during casual conversation, fall between 40 and 60 dB. You need to look out for extended exposure to the sounds of heavy traffic, power tools like drilling equipment and loudspeakers. Your distance from the sound source and time around it also matters. Jet engines, blow dryers, motorcycles and concert speakers are examples of everyday sounds above the healthy volume level.
2. Keep Your Ear Canals Clean
Ear wax shields your inner ear from dust and other toxic substances, and a reasonable amount is not harmful. However, excess accumulated earwax is a significant contributor to tinnitus. Hence, cleaning your ear canal every once in a while is a must.
Cotton swabs are usually not recommended, as using them could harm your eardrum and other delicate structures. It's best to wipe away extra wax using a damp towel. However, in more severe cases of wax accumulation, consult an experienced audiologist. Do not forget to remove water from your ears after a shower. Moisture damages the ear and makes space for bacteria, which exposes you to infections that could harm your hearing.
3. Avoid Prolonged Exposure to Loud Noises
Avoiding loud noises is a basic and the most effective method to protect your ears. Make sure your gadgets and appliances are kept at a moderate volume level. Keep your phones and TVs at 60 percent volume; do not use them for more than an hour in one go. Even if you don't detect a problem with your hearing yet, it's crucial to take preventive measures in due time. If noise exposure is inevitable, take time to get away from the noise to give your ears a while to recover.
4. Get Routine Hearing Checkups
It's crucial to have your hearing evaluated routinely, as in some cases, a hearing issue can be identified early in its development. Disregarding your hearing health might lead to infections and irreversible hearing loss.
A hearing examination may include tests such as tympanometry, speech audiometry and pure-tone audiometry. These exams assess your ability to understand speech, your hearing sensitivity and the efficiency of your middle ear, respectively. The outcomes reveal essential details about your general hearing health, including any indications of hearing loss or other auditory problems.
Specified establishments like HearCanada can help you get all your hearing-related needs catered to in one place, ranging from visual examinations and hearing assessments to diagnosis and treatment. Technologically advanced hearing aids are also available to help with pre-existing hearing loss and to prevent it further.
5. Use Noise Cancelation Tools
Wear hearing protection in a noisy area, such as earplugs or protective headphones. A great technique to safeguard your hearing and ears is by wearing earplugs. These reduce the intensity of loud noises and prevent your hearing from being immediately harmed.
Not only do noise-canceling headphones make music sound better, but they also minimize hearing damage by reducing the loudness of the music you're listening to. Active noise-canceling headphones use an electrical ruse to block out outside noise. For each entering sound wave, they produce a succession of inverse waves.
Hearing loss not only impacts social communication and cognitive function, but it can also lead to a lack of self-confidence and depression. Staying regular with hearing checkups and staying informed about the newest developments in hearing care could help prevent permanent hearing loss.
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