Eating right and protecting your hearing have some similarities. It sounds good, but not many of us have a good concept of where to start. If there aren’t any noticeable noise risks and you don’t think your environment is very loud, this is especially true. But daily life can stress your ears and your senses, so doing these hearing protection tips can help maintain your auditory acuity.
The more you can do to slow down the degeneration of your hearing, the longer you’ll be able to enjoy the sounds around you.
Tip 1: Hearing Protection You Can Wear
Using ear protection is the most practical and simple way to safeguard your ears. This means taking basic steps to minimize the amount of loud and harmful noises you’re subjected to.
For most people, this will mean wearing ear protection when it’s needed. Two basic forms of protection are available:
- Ear Plugs, which are put in the ear canal.
- Ear Muffs, which are put over the ears.
Neither form of hearing protection is inherently better than the other. There are benefits to each type. Your choice of hearing protection should, most importantly, feel comfortable.
Tip 2: When Sound Becomes Harmful, be Aware of It
But how do you know when to use hearing protection? We’re used to linking dangerous noise with painful noise. But much lower levels of sound can damage your ears than you might realize. After only a couple hours, for example, the sounds of traffic are enough to damage your hearing. Knowing when sound becomes dangerous, then, is a vital step in safeguarding your hearing.
The following threshold is when sound becomes harmful:
- 95-100 dB: This is the normal volume of your earbuds or the level of farm equipment. After about 15-20 minutes this volume of noise becomes hazardous.
- Over 100 dB: Your ears can be very rapidly injured by this. Anything over this threshold can damage your hearing in minutes or seconds. Jet engines and rock concerts, for instance, can damage your ears in about thirty seconds.
- 85 decibels (dB): After about two hours this level of sound is hazardous.Your hairdryer or a busy city street are both scenarios where you will find this level of sound.
Tip 3: Use Your Phone as a Sound Meter
We can take precautions to limit our exposure, now that we have a concept of what levels will be dangerous. But in everyday life, it can be difficult trying to determine what is too loud and what isn’t.
That’s where your smartphone can become a handy little tool. There are dozens of apps for iPhone, Android, and everything in between that turn your device’s microphone into a sound meter.
Having a dynamic sound meter with you will help you measure everything you’re hearing in decibels, so you’ll have a much better concept of what dangerous levels really sound like in your daily life.
Tip 4: Monitor Your Volume Buttons
The majority of people today listen to music via their phone or smart device, and they normally use earbuds while they do it. This sets up a dangerous scenario for your hearing. Over years of use, earbuds set to a sufficiently high volume can cause considerable injury to your hearing.
That’s why protecting your ears means keeping a sharp eye on your volume control. You should never raise the volume to drown out noises elsewhere. in order to make certain that volume doesn’t get too high, we recommend using volume configurations or app settings.
Earbud use can become something of a negative feedback loop if your hearing starts to wane; in order to compensate for your declining hearing, you may find yourself constantly rising the volume of your earbuds, and in the process doing more harm to your ears.
Tip 5: Get Your Hearing Examined
You might think of a hearing test as something you schedule when your hearing has already begun to diminish. Without a baseline to compare results to, it’s not always easy to detect a problem in your ears.
Generating data that can be used for both diagnostic applications and for treatment can best be accomplished by scheduling a hearing exam and screening. This will give you a little extra context for future hearing choices and ear protection.
Pay Attention to Your Hearing
It would be perfect if you could continuously safeguard your hearing without any problems. But challenges are always going to be there. So anytime you can and as often as possible, safeguard your hearing. Also, get routine hearing exams. Put these suggestions into practice to improve your chances.