We have seen parents instructing their children “Turn off that loud noise before you go deaf.”
The new generation kids love to hear loud music. They frequently visit the pubs, discotheques where the music is loud. If the noise around you is so loud that you have to shout to be heard there are chances that the mechanisms instead your ear can be damaged.
Today there is a new danger; more and more people are unintentionally damaging their ears by listening to loud music through earphones. People routinely use the earphones to listen to loud music in devices like ipods, mp3 players, or phones to the hands free headsets.
The number of people who use devices to hear loud music, along with the duration for listening to music with earphones is rapidly increasing.
Listening to loud music can cause temporary hearing loss, or tinnitus (medical term for ringing of the ear) or in the worst scenario can loss permanent hearing loss. Hearing loss means not being able to hear as well as other people do, while for some individuals it could mean not being able to hear at all. Studies suggest that teenagers are particularly at a higher risk because their ears are very sensitive.
Dr. Sangeet Kumar Poddar, Well Known ENT Specialist from Seven Hills Hospital says, “The hardness of the earplug causes the exterior ear canal to get inflamed which may result in ear infections or chewing problems.”
What types of earphones are dangerous?
If the music is too loud, all types of earphones can damage the hearing capacity. However, the ear bud design of earphone which are inserted into the ear are more dangerous as they force the sound directly towards the eardrum.
What are the symptoms of hearing damage?
The symptoms of hearing damage caused due to loud sounds are as follows:
- Ringing or buzzing in the ear
- Difficulty in hearing speech in noisy places
- Slight muffling of sounds
To understand if your ears are at a higher risk of damage, perform this test.
Set the volume of the radio to the levels where you can hardly hear the words. After listening to the loud music, turn on the radio to the same setting. If you cannot hear and understand the words, you are experiencing a short term hearing loss called temporary threshold shift.
How can you use the earphones safely?
There are several measures that you need to take to make sure that listening to loud music does not cause hearing damage.
- Avoid listening to music in the busy streets or while travelling in a bus or train where you would require tuning the volume control when the noise increases.
- Listen to the mp3 players for no more than about an hour a day and at levels below 60 percent of the maximum level.
- When using earphones for longer periods take at least 5 minutes rest each hour. This would provide the ears with rest time and can help in reducing the risk of hearing impairment in the long run.
- Use headphones that are outside the ear canal instead of ear bud headphones.
- Get your hearing test periodically done.
Dr Sangeet Kumar Poddar suggests listening to music at optimal sound may not cause much harm but it important to limit the duration to keep ear problems at bay.
Using your earphones may not show immediate hearing problems, you will notice only when you grow older and you will have hearing aids in your ears. It is suggested that if you limit the use of earphones, keep the volume low, and take regular breaks you could keep your hearing fine.
