Common Causes Of Hearing Loss And How To Prevent Them

It’s probable that you may encounter hearing loss at some stage in your life, which can stem from a variety of preventable or unavoidable factors. Without knowledge of the potential causes and prevention methods for hearing loss, you may struggle to care for your hearing appropriately. This article aims to explore some of the causes and offer solutions to evade them. With an audiologist they will be able to talk to you about these common causes of hearing loss, and how you can further prevent your hearing loss.

Aging

As we age, our ability to hear can gradually decline due to a condition known as age-related hearing loss. This condition stems from the loss of hair cells in the inner ear that help detect and process sound waves. Consequently, older adults with age-related hearing loss may struggle to hear certain high-pitched sounds or understand speech, which can impact their quality of life.

Unfortunately, there is not anything that you can do to avoid age related hearing loss, as it is just something that happens as you get older and loss of hair cells in your ears occur. Most people will experience age-related hearing loss at some point in their later lifetime if they don’t experience it before this.

Exposure to Loud Noises

Another common cause of hearing loss is constantly being exposed to loud noises. If you are someone who is constantly surrounded by excessive noise, eventually this is going to have a negative impact on your hearing. In the past when you have been surrounded by a loud noise, you might have come away with a ringing in your ears that lasted for a few seconds. This is known as temporary tinnitus and is a warning sign that the noise level was too high and that your ears are at risk of damage.

In order to combat this problem, you should try to avoid being around loud noises as much as possible. Of course, sometimes this is not going to be possible and you need to find ways around this. If you work on a construction site for example, then you are going to need protective gear for your ears like earmuffs. If you are going to a concert or you work in the music industry, just make sure that you are wearing earplugs often to block out some of the noise.

Damage to Your Head

If you damage your head, this can cause hearing loss. Everything is pretty much connected in your head including your ears, nose and throat, which means that you have got to take care of all of these things if you want to retain your hearing as long as possible. If you damage any of these areas, or if you bang your head, this can cause hearing loss to some degree. You might notice that things sound quieter than they should, or that there is a ringing in your ears that wasn’t there before. You should get checked out by a doctor if you have experienced a head injury, and then an audiologist to get your hearing checked out.

The best thing that you can do to avoid this is to try to look after your head as much as you can. If you are riding a bike or motorcycle, make sure that you are wearing the correct protective gear. Essentially, you want to make sure that you are taking precautions to keep yourself safe at all times and minimize the risk of harm.

Ototoxic Medicines

Hearing and balance rely on the well-being of delicate sensory cells found in the ear, but certain medicines can pose a threat to their health. These ototoxic medications, as they’re known, have the potential to damage these cells and result in hearing loss of varying degrees. To protect your auditory senses, it’s critical to avoid medications with ototoxic properties and to remain vigilant by checking all medications for this risk. Take control of your hearing health and take the necessary steps to prevent damage to your ear cells.

If you are interested in finding out more about common causes of hearing loss and how you can prevent them, get in touch with Clifton Springs Hearing Center at 315-496-4314. Our audiologists are available to help you in any way that you need, ensuring that you can take care of your hearing health to the best of your ability going forward. We look forward to hearing from you.