What causes hearing loss?

Most clients think that the #1 reason for hearing loss, is age. I am here to let you know that most hearing losses are not caused by age.

There are many different causes of hearing loss. Hearing loss can be caused by the following: allergic reactions to medications, genetics, radiation and/or chemotherapy (but these are getting less likely) and loud sounds or noises.

There are about 20% of Americans or 48 million that have some degree of hearing loss. The most common hearing loss is loud noise or sounds. There are many different sounds in our everyday life that will affect our hearing. Maybe you have not thought about the sounds around you that could affect your hearing. We will go over a few of those sounds: police or ambulance sirens, lawnmowers, blenders, noisy restaurants, garbage disposal, babies crying and movie theaters.

Our ears can tolerate sounds up to 85 dB, any sounds above that could potentially cause temporary or permanent hearing loss. Some noises that could cause you to possibly have damage to your hearing also depends on the distance that the sound occurred away from you and for how long.

What sounds fall above the 85 dB and possibly do permanent or temporary damage? Let’s take a look at some of the damaging noises in our everyday life. Some of those noises can come from hair dryers (95 dB), tractor (105 dB), leaf blower (115 dB), a rock concert (115 dB), chainsaw (115 dB), ambulance (125 dB), a jet plane from 100 ft. (135 dB), fireworks (145 dB) and 12-gauge shotgun (165 dB). There are so many loud sounds that are around us during our busy days.

What can I do to help prevent getting a hearing loss from these sounds? Some sounds such as those in a factory environment can be prevented by wearing earplugs Your employer should provide them at no cost to you. When you go to the movie theater, you could wear sound suppression earplugs. If you wear hearing aids already, please take your hearing aids out and wear earplugs when mowing the yard, running a chainsaw or being on the tractor.