The first thing to do, when you begin to recognize that you have hearing loss, is to avoid further damage. After all, you can take some simple steps to stop further damage and safeguard your ears.
Step 1: Clean Your Ears
Remember learning to make sure you clean behind your ears when you learned general hygiene (or at least should have learned). When it comes to hearing health, though, we aren’t concerned with the space behind your ears, but rather your inner ears.
There are several ways that keeping your ears clear of wax can help your hearing:
- If you use a hearing aid, earwax buildup can interfere with its function as well. You might end up thinking that your hearing is going downhill because of this.
- Over time, neglected hearing loss can affect your brain and your ability to decipher sounds.
- Unkempt ears increase your chances of developing an ear infection, which produces inflammation that (when serious enough) interferes with your hearing. When your ear infection clears, your regular hearing will usually come back.
- Sound can be blocked from reaching the inner ear when there’s too much wax accumulation. As a result, your ability to hear becomes weakened.
If you observe earwax accumulation, it’s definitely not suggested that you dig around in there with a cotton swab. In most instances, a cotton swab will worsen the situation or cause additional damage. Alternatively, use over-the-counter ear drops.
Step 2: Avoid Loud Noises
This one is so intuitive it almost shouldn’t be on the list. But identifying how loud is too loud is the real difficulty for most individuals. For instance, freeway driving can be loud enough to damage your hearing over an extended period of time. Your lawnmower motor can be pretty taxing on your ears, as well. As you can tell, it’s not just blasting speakers or loud rock concerts that harm your ears.
Here are a few ways to avoid damaging noise:
- Wearing hearing protection when loud environments can’t be avoided. Do you work on a noisy factory floor? Going to see a rock concert? That’s cool. Just use the correct hearing protection. Modern earmuffs and earplugs provide abundant protection.
- Using an app on your phone to notify you when decibel levels get to harmful thresholds.
- Refraining from turning up the volume on your headphones when you’re listening to music or watching videos. When harmful volumes are being approached, most phones feature a built in warning.
The damage to your hearing from loud sounds will develop gradually. So if you’ve been to a noisy event, you could have done damage even if you don’t realize 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 – Have it Treated
In general, hearing impairment is cumulative. So recognizing any damage early on will go a long way to preventing additional injury. That’s why treatment is tremendously important in terms of limiting hearing loss. Practical treatments (on which you follow through) will leave your hearing in the best possible condition.
Here’s how treatments work:
- Our advice will help you learn to safeguard your hearing because it is customized and personalized for you.
- Hearing aids stop the brain strain and social solitude that exacerbate hearing loss-related health issues.
- Some, but not all damage can be avoided by using hearing aids. Hearing aids will, for instance, allow you to listen to music or the TV at a lower volume, avoiding damage. Because hearing aids prevent this damage, they can also stop further deterioration of your hearing.
Decreasing Hearing Impairment Will Benefit You in The Long Run
Although we can’t cure hearing loss, further damage can be prevented with treatment. One of the main ways to do that, in many situations, is hearing aids. The correct treatment will help you preserve your current level of hearing and prevent it from getting worse.
When you wear hearing protection, exercise good hygiene, and obtain hearing loss treatment, you’re taking the appropriate measures to limit hearing loss while also giving yourself the best chance for healthy hearing in the future.