Usually, when you’re confronted with hearing loss (no matter the variety), the first thing you should do is attempt to minimize the damage. After all, you can take some basic actions to prevent additional damage and safeguard your ears.
Step 1: Clean Your Ears
Remember learning to be certain you clean behind your ears when you learned basic hygiene (or at least should have learned). But it’s actually the inner ear we’re concerned with keeping clean when it comes to hearing health, not behind the ears.
Keeping your ears clear of wax accumulation can help your hearing in a number of different ways:
- If you have a hearing aid, earwax accumulation can interfere with its function as well. You might end up thinking that your hearing is going downhill because of this.
- Sound can be blocked from getting into the inner ear when there’s too much wax accumulation. Consequently, your hearing becomes weakened.
- Your brain and ability to interpret sound will ultimately be impacted by neglected hearing loss.
- Untidy ears raise your odds of getting an ear infection, which causes inflammation that (when serious enough) interferes with your hearing. Your hearing will return to normal after the ear infection clears.
If you find earwax accumulation, it’s absolutely not advisable that you dig around in there with a cotton swab. Additional damage can be done by cotton swabs and they will frequently make it even harder to hear. Over the counter ear drops are a smarter idea.
Step 2: Avoid Loud Noises
This one should almost be left off the list it’s so obvious. But identifying how loud is too loud is the real difficulty for most individuals. As an example, freeway driving can be loud enough to damage your hearing over an extended period of time. The motor on your lawnmower can be fairly taxing on your ears, as well. As you can tell, it’s not just blasting speakers or loud rock concerts that damage your ears.
Some practical ways to avoid harmful noises include:
- Refraining from cranking the volume up on your headphones when you’re watching videos or listening to music. Most phones feature built-in alerts when you’re nearing a dangerous level.
- When you can’t steer clear of noisy settings, use hearing protection. Does your job put you on the floor of a loud manufacturing plant? Do you really want to go to that rock concert? That’s great. Just wear the necessary ear protection. A perfect illustration would be earmuffs and earplugs.
- When decibel levels get too loud, an app on your phone can warn you of that.
The damage to your hearing from loud noises will develop gradually. So if you’ve attended a noisy event, you might have done damage even if you don’t detect it. Only a hearing specialist can give your hearing a clean bill of health.
Step #3: If You Have Any Hearing Impairment – Have it Addressed
In general, hearing impairment is cumulative. So recognizing any damage early will go a long way to preventing additional injury. That’s why getting treated is tremendously important in terms of limiting hearing loss. Your hearing will be at the greatest advantage if you seek out and follow through on effective treatment.
Here’s how treatments work:
- Some, but not all damage can be avoided by using hearing aids. For instance, hearing aids will prevent you from cranking your television volume up so loud it damages your ears. Because hearing aids prevent this damage, they can also prevent further deterioration of your hearing.
- The potential of developing hearing loss related health problems is reduced by using hearing aids because they prevent social solitude and brain strain.
- We can provide personalized guidelines and advice to help you prevent added damage to your ears.
You Will be Benefited in The Future by Limiting Hearing Loss
Although it’s true that there’s no cure for hearing loss, getting treatment for your hearing loss will help stop further damage. In many situations, hearing aids are one of the primary ways to accomplish that. Getting the proper treatment will not only stop additional damage but also keep your present hearing level intact.
Your giving yourself the best possibility for healthy hearing into the future by using ear protection, getting the correct treatment, and practicing good hearing hygiene.