We experience a variety of sounds in our environment on a daily basis. Conversations with friends/family, listening to music, watching TV, running common household appliances, and/or listening to the birds outside– are normally at a safe listening level that cannot cause damage to your hearing.

Whether sounds are too loud for a brief time period or too loud for an extended period of time, they can be equally harmful for your hearing. These sounds can cause damage to the inner ear causing potential noise-induced hearing loss.

Noise Exposure & Hearing Protection​

What is Noise Induced Hearing Loss?​ 

Noise-induced hearing loss can happen to people of all ages. It can be noticed immediately with a sudden hearing loss or over a long period of time. It can be temporary (for some) or permanent (for others) and affect one or both ears. Even if you are unable to notice changes in your hearing from noise exposure, it's possible that you may have trouble understanding others in the future as a result of a trauma.​

Potential Causes of Noise Induced Hearing Loss May Include:

• Impulse sounds (ie. sirens, gun shots, fireworks, air compressors, dog barking, baby crying)​

• Military Service (ie. combat, training, firearm use, explosion, jets, aircraft, heavy weapons) ​
• Continuous exposure to loud sounds over an extended period of time (ie. factory work, warehouse work, construction work, airport work, automotive work, use of power tools/equipment)
• Recreational activities (i.e. live stadium sports, target shooting, hunting, playing in a band, loud concerts, listening to loud music through headphones/earbuds, woodworking, movie theaters, car racing, motorcycles)
• Outdoor equipment (i.e power tools, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, saws, power washers)

Some Common Examples of Everyday Sounds that Can Damage Hearing: 

If Hearing Loss is Suspected… You should consider a referral to a Licensed Audiologist and ENT!

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What is Happening Inside of Your Organ of Hearing?

How Do We Hear? 

We hear sound because vibrations (sound waves) that reach our outer ear travel through our hearing system to send a signal to our brain! We recognize those vibrations as speech, music, or other sounds.

Outer Ear The outer ear—the part of the ear you see—funnels sound waves into the ear canal. The sound waves travel through the ear canal to reach the eardrum.

Middle Ear The eardrum vibrates from the incoming sound waves and sends these vibrations to three tiny bones in the middle ear. These bones amplify, or increase, the sound vibrations and send them to the inner ear.

Inner Ear The inner ear contains a snail-shaped structure filled with fluid called the cochlea. Sound vibrations create waves in the cochlear fluids. As the waves peak, they cause tiny hair cells to bend, which converts the vibrations into electrical signals. These tiny hair cells are called stereocilia (types of receptors that can detect sound).

Auditory Nerve The auditory nerve carries the electrical signals from the inner ear to the brain. The brain interprets the signals as sound that you recognize and understand. 

Damaged Hair Cells in Your Ears Can Lead to Hearing Loss​

Hearing loss can happen when any part of the ear or the nerves that carry information on sounds to your brain do not work in the usual way. In some cases, hearing loss can be temporary. However, it can become permanent when vital parts of the ear have been damaged beyond repair. Damage to any part of the ear can lead to hearing loss. Loud noise is particularly harmful to the inner ear (cochlea).  Loud noise can damage cells and membranes inside of the cochlea. Listening to loud noise for a long time can overwork these tiny cells called hair cells in the ear, which can cause these cells to be damaged/die off.  Hearing loss can progress as noise exposure continues. Harmful effects might continue even after noise exposure has stopped. Damage to the inner ear or auditory (cochlear) nerve is generally permanent.

The average person is born with about 16,000 hair cells within their cochlea (figure A). These cells allow your brain to detect sounds. Up to 30% to 50% of hair cells can be damaged or destroyed before changes in your hearing can be measured by a hearing test. By the time you notice hearing loss, many hair cells have been destroyed and cannot be repaired.

After leaving a very loud event, such as a concert or football game, you may notice that you don't hear as well as before. You might not hear whispers, sound might seem muffled, or you may hear ringing in your ears. Normal hearing usually returns within a few hours to a few days. This is because the hair cells, similar to blades of grass, will bend more (become overstimulated) the louder the sound. But they may recover after what we call a refractory/recovery period. Example of damaged hair cells in figure B.

However, if loud noise has damaged too many of the hair cells, some can be permanently damaged or die off. Repeated exposures to loud noises over time can potentially destroy many of the hair cells in the cochlea. This can gradually reduce your ability to understand speech in noisy places. Eventually, if hearing loss continues, it can become hard to understand speech even in quieter places.

Noise Can Also Damage Nerves in Your Ear​

How Is Noise Measured?

• Sound is measured in units called decibels.
• The NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limit (REL) for occupational noise exposure is 85 decibels, A-weighted, as an 8-hour time-weighted average (85 dBA as an 8-hr TWA) using a 3-dB exchange rate. Exposures at or above this level are considered hazardous. Use hearing protection when hazardous noise levels cannot be adequately reduced
• Workers exposed to any single impulse noise level that exceeds 140 dBA and/or those whose 8-hour TWA exposures exceed 100 dBA should wear double hearing protection (i.e., they should wear earplugs and earmuffs)

Did you know that you can measure decibels by using an app on your smartphone?

Embedded apps on iPhone/Apple Watch and some Android phones can measure levels of sound/noise in decibels and send you alerts when sounds are too loud.

Here are some helpful apps that can measure sound levels:

• NIOSH Sound Level Meter App (iOS)
• NoiSee (iOS)
• Sound Meter X (iOS)
• Sound Meter (Android)
• SoundPrint (iOS and Android)

Effects of Noise Induced Hearing Loss

• Exposure to loud sounds over a long period of time may gradually affect your hearing. That damage, along with aging, can lead to hearing loss severe enough that you may need hearing aids to communicate and participate in daily activities.
• Individuals can experience Tinnitus (​a ringing, buzzing, or roaring sensation)  in the ears as a result of noise exposure and/or damage to hearing. It can be constant or intermittent (comes and goes) and present in one or both ears.  Tinnitus can be more or less bothersome depending on the individual.  

Noise Induced Hearing Loss is something you CAN prevent!

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Baseline Hearing Tests Are Important!

Whether you have a long history of noise exposure, a recent history of sudden noise exposure, or are starting a new position/hobby where damaging noise exposure is a risk.. Our Audiologists always recommend that the first step can be a baseline hearing test to determine the current status of your hearing!

Our Audiologists focus first on providing accurate diagnostic hearing evaluations.  Our patient is always best served in an environment that prioritizes a comprehensive health care approach. That goal is more attainable at a full-service ENT location, with the ability to leverage expertise from both our dedicated doctors of audiology, as well as our partnering physicians.  

Your baseline hearing evaluation will include:

Otoscopy: A look in your ears to assess for any abnormalities. 

Tympanometry & acoustic reflexes: To determine how well your eardrum is moving and to measure the reflexive responses of the middle ear muscles.

Pure-tone audiometry: Listening for the softest tones at different frequencies and intensities (volume).  This gives your audiologist information about the severity and configuration of your hearing loss.

Speech audiometry: Using recorded or live speech to find the softest words that you can hear and understand.  Word Recognition testing will measure your ability to understand speech at a comfortable listening level. Our Audiologists can also use speech sounds to determine your most comfortable listening level and the upper limits of comfort for listening.

Speech in noise and words in noise tests:  Most of our patients complain about how they hear in noisy environments—not quiet sound-treated rooms! Common tests we use to evaluate hearing ability include the Speech in Noise test (SIN or Quick SIN) and the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT). 

Testing for auditory processing disorder: Some patients can have normal hearing evaluations and still feel like they aren't hearing well.  For these patients, we always consider referral for an auditory processing evaluation so we can see what your brain is doing with the message you hear.  

Treating Your Whole Health

• Social Isolation (Every decibel drop in perception in people under 70 increases the odds of becoming severely lonely by 7%)
• Depression (Some studies have shown reductions in depressive symptoms within three months of hearing aid use. )⁴
• Anxiety (people with mild hearing loss have 32% higher likelihood of experiencing anxiety, and  moderate or greater hearing loss having 59% higher likelihood of anxiety)
• Cognitive Decline (Adults with hearing loss experience a 30-40% faster decline in cognitive abilities than peers with normal hearing *75 years & older)
• Falls (People with mild hearing loss are 3x more likely to have a history of falling than people with normal hearing)

Remember, you can PREVENT noise-induced hearing loss!

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How You Can Prevent Noise Induced Hearing Loss

1. Know which sounds cause damage to your hearing
2. Wear earplugs/protective devices when involved in loud activities or in loud environments
3. If you are unable to reduce the noise or protect your hearing from it, move away from the source of the noise
4. Be aware of hazardous noises in the environment
5. Protect the ears of children who are too young to protect their own hearing
6. Make others aware of the effects of hazardous noise levels
7. Have your hearing tested if you think you might have hearing loss

Custom Hearing Protection

If your recreational activities involve high levels of noise and throw away foam hearing protection/earmuffs are not working well for you, you may want to consider custom hearing protection

1. Custom hearing protection starts with a conversation & consultation to select the best device for you based on your listening situation. This may include firearm ear protection, industrial ear protection, musician/concert attendee ear protection, and filtered hearing protection based on your specific needs
2. After you select your device of choice, earmold impression(s) will be taken and sent off for your hearing protection to be custom made

Research & Treatment

Hearing Loss is often permanent, however, scientists  and researchers are working on ways to potentially restore cells damaged inside of the organ of hearing that result in permanent hearing loss.  Research in the areas of gene therapy, antioxidants (for protection of cells), and regenerative studies are all currently being advanced.  

Until the cure for permanent hearing loss can be found our Audiologists always encourage wearing hearing protection with any situations where noise exposure is a risk to protect hearing!  

There are several treatment options available for hearing loss that may include medical intervention and/or hearing devices.   If your treatment plan includes hearing aids, you can feel confident you're in the right place! Not only is it our professional responsibility to maintain current knowledge on all the latest hearing technology and treatment options, but also to counsel you in a comfortable low stress environment! Our educated team of audiologists provide in-depth & extended times for hearing aid evaluations to be sure that your better hearing health plan has your goals as the center focus.

If you or a loved one are having concerns about noise induced hearing loss, our offices are readily available to provide an evaluation, consultation, and treatment recommendation best suited for you. The first step is reaching out! 

Call our offices at (704) 703-1080 or book an appointment online today!​  

 References:

1. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/noise.html#:~:text=Hearing%20loss%20can%20result%20from,be%20medically%20or%20surgically%20corrected.
2. https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/hearingloss/index.html
3. https://www.asha.org/public/hearing/loud-noise-dangers/
4. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/noise/default.html#:~:text=The%20NIOSH%20Recommended%20Exposure%20Limit,this%20level%20are%20considered%20hazardous.\
5. https://www.starkeycanada.ca/blog/articles/2021/10/18-everyday-sounds-that-can-hurt-your-hearing