Most adults eventually notice that they’re turning the volume of their TVs up more often or that individuals around them have to speak up. While there are plenty of causes of hearing loss, the two most common are age and noise. However, here’s the good news, you can do several things to prevent noise-induced hearing impairment and stop age-related hearing problems from worsening. In this guide, we’ll be reviewing six tips to aid in keeping your ears sharp always.
Avoid Excessive Noise
If you need to yell over any noise around you to communicate, then it’s loud enough to impair your hearing. Occasional sounds from concert speakers, earphones, motorcycles, and more are loud enough to cause some real hearing problems.
Inspect Medications for Possible Hearing Risks
There are over 200 drugs out there that can impair hearing, including cancer-fighting drugs and some antibiotics. Even high aspirin doses can cause damage to your ears. If you are on any prescription medication, check with the doctor to ensure it won’t negatively impact your hearing. However, if you absolutely have to take meds that may harm your hearing, ensure your doctor inspects your balance and hearing before your treatment.
Wear Hearing Protective Equipment
If you know you’ll be around loud noises for louder than a few minutes, then you should consider wearing protection. There are jobs out there that require employees to work through loud sounds. Working as a constructor, hearing loss risks on the job is quite common. However, with certain protective equipment, such as earplugs and earmuffs, you can reduce the effects of loud sounds.
Quit Smoking
Research shows that smoking tobacco can increase your chances of suffering hearing loss. However, if you don’t smoke at all, avoid taking in secondhand smoke.
Properly Remove Earwax
An accumulation of wax inside your ears can result in muffle sounds. However, it’s also not wise to use a cotton swab to take them out because they can end up pushing the wax deeper into your ear. Instead, you can utilize an irrigation kit to dissolve the wax and wash it out. However, if it gets too compacted inside your ear, you might have to contact a doctor to remove it.
Schedule Hearing Exams and Monitor General Hearing Health
Having a benchmark to ascertain your degree of hearing loss is essential. If you often spend time around loud sounds, consider having your hearing tested by a professional at the onset of potential noise-induced hearing loss symptoms, such as sounds seeming dull or muffled or ringing in the ears.
Avoid Putting Things in Your Ear
This is the most common tip for preventing any form of hearing loss. This includes paper clips, keys, bobby pins, or anything else you might be tempted to use to clean or scratch your ears.
While there are several treatments for hearing loss, from hearing aids and amplifiers to implants, prevention is always better than cure. With these preventive tips above, you can reduce the chances of age-related or noise-induced hearing loss.
