Noise of a volume greater than 85 decibels (db) needs to be avoided.
His name is immortalized in the measuring unit for the strength of sounds called the decibel. However, long before that age range, preventative methods to protect our hearing should be instilled in our daily lives.Īlexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was by family history and profession a teacher of the deaf in Scotland, Canada and America. All of us will develop some hearing loss with age, but in most cases we can enjoy normal hearing until age 60. Noise-induced hearing loss is preventable. You suddenly have difficulty understanding speech after noise exposure.You hear ringing or buzzing (tinnitus) in your ears immediately after noise exposure.You have pain in your ears after leaving a noisy area.You can’t hear someone three feet away from you.Danielson of Baylor University School of Medicine, described the warning signs of the presence of or the exposure to hazardous noise: In a recent article on evaluating hearing loss, Dr. Affected individuals often have irreversible hearing loss before they are aware of it and can begin to prevent further loss. The frequency of increasingly serious and prevalent noise-induced hearing loss has increased because the effects of environmental noise exposure are usually slowly developing and, ironically, are silent in their effect on the person’s hearing. Although most of us gradually lose a portion of our hearing, usually in the high frequency ranges as we age, modern society and our medical care system have permitted our population to generally preserve its hearing abilities.Īnother common and very important personal and public health problem related to our hearing abilities, especially as the summer months approach, is the challenge of noise-induced hearing loss. Both blind persons and deaf individuals usually report that they would rather be sightless than deaf. It is generally felt that hearing is our most valuable sense. Do ask your physician and the staff about prophylactic ear hygiene at home certain conditions may require observation and personal therapy.