Table of Contents
Noise can damage membranes, hair cells, nerves, and other parts of your ear. It may be a permanent or temporary hearing loss. Can loud music cause hearing loss, and how common is it? Read more.
Permanent or Temporary Hearing Loss
Hearing loss reduces your ability to understand or hear sounds and speech in your environment. You can experience hearing loss if any part of your ear or nerves carrying information on sounds to the brain doesn’t work as it is.
Usually, hearing loss may be temporary. But it can be permanent if the ear’s vital part gets damaged beyond repair. Damage to your ear part can result in hearing loss. Keep in mind that loud noise can harm your inner ear or cochlea.
Even one-time exposure to loud noise or loud music for a long time can lead to hearing loss. The loud sound can damage the membranes and cells in your cochlea. If you listen to loud noise for an extended period, the hair cells in your ear can be overworked. So, the cells may die.
If you continuously expose yourself to loud noise, your hearing loss can progress. The harmful effects can continue even if you stop noise exposure. Damage to the auditory neural system or inner ear can be permanent.
Damaged Hair Cells In The Ears Can Result In Hearing Loss
An average person’s cochlea can have around 16,000 hair cells. The hair cells let your brain detects sounds. About 30-50% of the hair cells can be damaged or destroyed and can’t be repaired.
Once you leave a very loud event like a football game or concert, you can observe that you can’t hear well like before. Your normal hearing can return in a few hours to a few days. It is because your ear’s hair cells are like blades of grass. It can bend more with a louder sound. Then, it can be straight again after recovery.
Signs of too loud noise
To avoid hearing loss, you should know the signs of too loud noise. Here are some signs that the noise is too loud.
- You can’t hear or understand someone who’s about 3 feet away from where you are.
- You need to raise your voice to be heard.
- You have ringing or pain in your ears once you hear the noise, also known as tinnitus. It may last for a few days or a few minutes.
- Speech sounds dull or muffled around you after you leave the noisy environment.
Your health and noise
Loud noise will not only affect your hearing. It may also lead to other problems. Noise can make you feel cranky and tired. Loud noise may also cause other health issues, including:
- Faster heart rate
- High blood pressure
- Upset stomach
- Problems with how an infant develops before birth
- Problems with sleeping, even after the loud noise stops
How you can protect your hearing
It is essential to know how noise affects you to protect your hearing. You should avoid exposing yourself to loud music or noise as much as possible. Note that the noise is too loud if you need to shout to be heard by someone.
Here are some tips to protect your hearing:
Wear a hearing protection
You should note that cotton in the ears doesn’t work. You can buy earmuffs or earplugs for hearing protection.
Earmuffs can fit your ears. You should fit the earmuffs tightly to block the sound from going to your ears. It can lower the noise by 15 to 30 dB, depending on how they fit and are made.
Earplugs can block the canal of your ears. They are available in different sizes and shapes. Your audiologist can make it for your ears. This hearing protection can reduce noise by 15 to 30 decibels.
You can also use earmuffs and earplugs together to reduce noise. You can use it together if the noise levels are more than 105 dB for 8 hours and above.
Be a local advocate
Some health clubs, movie theaters, bars, amusement centers, and dance clubs are noisy. You can speak to managers regarding loud music and how it can affect hearing. So, they may reduce the volume.
Reduce the volume
You should set your listening devices to not more than half the volume. According to the World Health Organization, the recommended for adults is 40 hours of weekly exposure to a volume not higher than 80 dB and 75 dB for kids using personal listening gadgets.
Don’t listen to loud noise for too long
If you don’t wear hearing protection, you should avoid listening to loud noise for too long. You should give your ears a break from loud noise. You can also plug your ears using your fingers when emergency vehicles pass by.
Conclusion
To sum it up, loud music can cause hearing loss. It is common, especially for people who attend loud events more often. If you keep listening to loud music, you can damage the parts of your ear, leading to ear loss. You can check hearing loss new treatment at Power if you look for other treatment options for hearing loss.