Many of us take our sense of hearing for granted. However, it’s one of our most vital senses – helping us to communicate, alerting us of dangers and allowing us to experience the joy of music.
Everyone’s hearing deteriorates with age. However, certain bad habits can cause hearing loss to occur faster and sooner. By making a conscious effort to look after your ears, you can maintain sharper hearing longer. Below are a few hearing health mistakes to avoid if you want to preserve your sense of hearing.
Wearing no ear protection in noisy environments
Loud noise levels can damage our ears. This is why it’s important to wear ear protection such as earplugs or ear defenders in noisy environments. If you work on a construction site or in a noisy factory, you should wear ear protection (some employers may provide this for you). When going to a loud concert or a sports event, it’s also recommended that you wear earplugs (especially if you go to these events regularly).
Listening to music at high volume
Some of us cause premature damage to our ears by listening to music too loudly. If your ears are ringing after listening to music, it’s a sign that you’re causing damage to your ears. Turn down the volume if you regularly experience this. This is particularly important when listening to music on headphones.
Using cotton swabs to clean your ears
Many use cotton swabs to remove ear wax from our ears, but quite often they can push ear wax further into our ear canal. This not only leads to hard impacted ear wax that can cause muffled hearing, but can also contribute to ear infections. When cleaning out your ears, it is better to use ear drops or invest in professional ear cleaning.
Ignoring the first signs of hearing loss
Having trouble hearing things that you previously were able to hear clearly? Are you turning the volume up louder on the TV and constantly asking people to repeat themselves? These are signs that you may have hearing loss. Ignoring hearing loss can cause continued strain to your ears, which can make it even worse. Seeing an audiologist for a hearing exam and getting a hearing aid prescribed will help you to hear clearly again and reduce the strain on your ears. An audiologist will be able to help you explore various different styles.
Neglecting continuous care after getting a hearing aid
A lot of people overlook the importance of continuous care after getting a hearing aid. Not only do you need to wear your hearing aid every day, but you need to keep it maintained and go for check-ups to make sure your hearing aid is still the right prescription. It’s also important to still take steps to protect your hearing from loud noise and to not use cotton swabs. Don’t think that just because you’ve started to lose your hearing that it is a lost cause – continuing to protect your ears will slow down any continued hearing loss.
Conclusion
Whether you are young and healthy or old and already experiencing hearing loss, there are many things that you can do to protect your hearing. Start good habits early and it will make a bigger impact later on.
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