Your best bet is to work with a hearing healthcare professional to identify the appropriate hearing protection for the type of activity you’ll be participating in or attending. Most don’t fit snugly enough in the ear canal to block harmful sound and, when they are turned off, can prevent you from hearing desirable sounds - such as emergency vehicles, concert music, or the sporting announcer. While it might be tempting to turn your devices off thinking that they will serve as protection, guess again. You risk losing your remaining residual hearing when around loud sounds. Hearing aids and other devices amplify sounds in the environment, so your remaining hearing is susceptible to noise-induced hearing loss just like everyone else’s. Those who wear hearing aids should be mindful of dB levels in their environment, too. People with hearing loss still need to be careful Or, two, follow this general 4-step rule of thumb for knowing when loud is too loud: If you're in a noisy place and worried it may lead to hearing loss, there are two quick ways to measure the situation: One, use a smartphone sound meter app. They estimate approximately 15 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 69 have hearing loss that may have been caused by exposure to loud noise at work or through leisure activities. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) says everyone is susceptible to hearing damage as a result of noise exposure. This type of hearing loss is known as noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Whether it’s a one-time exposure to a loud explosion or daily exposure to an excessively noisy workplace or hobby, our hearing suffers the consequences. Decibels and noise-induced hearing lossĭecibels might be just another measuring stick if it weren’t for the damaging effects loud noise inflicts on our hearing. Would struggle to hear sounds quieter than about 50 dB. There are many possible combinations of decibel and frequency loss, all of which can be plotted on an audiogram showing a person's degree of hearing loss, which range from mild to profound: As an example of how this works: A person with moderate hearing loss Some people lose their hearing ability in higher frequencies, and some in the lower frequencies. For example, a person with normal hearing can hear rustling leaves and water dripping (~10 dB), but a person with mild hearing loss could not. Hearing loss is measured, in part, by the lowest level of decibels you are capable of hearing. Measuring hearing loss in decibels: How does it work?
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