Usually, when you’re first notice hearing loss (no matter the variety), the first thing you should do is try to control the damage. After all, you can take some simple measures to avoid additional damage and protect your ears.
Step 1: Keep Your Ears Clean
Did you clean behind your ears? It’s one of those early hygiene lessons you learn (or should have learned), right? But it’s actually the inner ear we’re concerned with cleaning in terms of hearing health, rather than behind the ears.
There are numerous ways that keeping your ears free from wax can help your hearing:
- When wax buildup becomes significant, it can prevent sound from reaching your inner ear. Consequently, your ability to hear becomes diminished.
- Earwax buildup also interferes with the functionality of your hearing aid if you use one. This may make it seem as if your hearing is getting worse.
- Your hearing can also be impeded if you get a severe ear infection which can also be caused by unclean ears. When your ear infection clears, your regular hearing will normally return.
- Your brain and ability to decipher sound will inevitably be impacted by untreated hearing loss.
If you find earwax accumulation, it’s absolutely not recommended that you dig around in there with a cotton swab. In most instances, a cotton swab will make things worse or cause additional damage. Over the counter ear drops are a better idea.
Step 2: Avoid Loud Noises
This one should almost be left off the list it’s so intuitive. But identifying how loud is too loud is the real issue for most people. Over an extended period of time, for instance, your hearing can be damaged by driving on a busy freeway. Also, believe it or not, your lawn mower can take a toll on your ears. Clearly, it’s more than rock concerts or loud speakers that cause hearing loss.
Some practical ways to avoid harmful noises include:
- Wearing ear protection when noisy environments are unavoidable. Do you work on a noisy factory floor? Do you really want to attend that rock concert? That’s fun. Just wear the correct ear protection. Modern earmuffs and earplugs provide ample protection.
- Staying away from cranking up the volume on your headphones when you’re listening to music or watching videos. When dangerous volumes are being approached, most phones come with a built in warning.
- Utilizing an app on your phone to notify you when decibel levels reach unsafe levels.
Damage to the ears from noise doesn’t develop suddenly, it builds up slowly. So if you’ve attended a loud event, you may have done damage even if you don’t notice it. You can only get a clean bill of health for your ears by a hearing professional.
Step #3: If You Have Any Hearing Loss – Get it Treated
Generally speaking, hearing loss is cumulative. So catching any damage early on will help prevent additional injury. That’s why getting treated is incredibly important in terms of decreasing hearing loss. Effective treatments (on which you follow through) will keep your hearing in the best possible shape.
Here’s what you can expect:
- The chance of developing hearing loss related health problems is diminished by using hearing aids because they minimize social isolation and brain strain.
- We can provide personalized instructions and advice to help you avoid further damage to your ears.
- Some, but not all damage can be prevented by wearing hearing aids. For example, hearing aids will stop you from cranking your television volume up so loud it damages your ears. Hearing aids will counter additional degeneration of your hearing by stopping this damage.
You Will be Benefited in The Future by Limiting Hearing Loss
Even though it’s true that hearing loss can’t be cured, getting treatment for your hearing loss will help stop additional damage. In many cases, hearing aids are one of the main ways to accomplish that. The correct treatment will help you maintain your present level of hearing and prevent it from getting worse.
Your giving yourself the best opportunity for healthy hearing into the future by using ear protection, getting the proper treatment, and exercising good hearing hygiene.
