Saturday, Jun 11, 2011
Gulf News
Dubai Teenagers often come to the audiologist’s office complaining of ringing in their ears.
“That’s the first sign there is something wrong with your hearing,” says Dr Riza A.V., MedCare Hospital.
The ringing in the ear is called tinnitus and this constant sound which only you can hear can drive you crazy.
There are many causes of tinnitus. Besides advancing age, the most common one is listening to your MP3 player at a high volume.
“Any sound crossing 90 dB (decibels) can affect hearing,” says the audiologist. He suggests that music should be be played at 50 per cent of the volume on your music player controls.
The decibel (dB) is a unit to measure the intensity of sound. A normal conversation is usually held at 60db. Any sound above 80dB can cause hearing loss depending on how long you hear the sound at this level. You will know you are listening to an 85 dB sound because you may have to raise your voice to be heard.
Eight hours of 90 dB sound in rock concerts, discos or night clubs can damage your ears. Any exposure to 140 dB sound, like a gunshot, will cause immediate damage and pain.
Not many of us will hear a gunshot at close quarters. But maybe we will listen to an MP3 player on full blast while studying or working. If you do this for five hours or so it will affect the minute hair cells in the inner most portion of the ear, called the cochlear.
Once those hearing cells are damaged it is not possible to bring them back to normal, says the audiologist.
“We all have personal music storage devices with a large capacity and long-life battery. We all like to listen to music,” says the doctor.
If your hearing is affected, the first thing lost will be the 4,000hz frequency. This frequency gives you the clarity of any high-pitched sound. When you lose the capacity to hear this frequency, your hearing will become unclear and the ringing sound will start.
If you persist in listening to music at that level and for many hours, you lose hearing other frequencies as well and you will not be able to understand what is being said around you.
“You will frequently ask people to repeat. A soft voice will be difficult to understand. One way to reduce the ringing in the ear is to reduce the output of the music, move away from the noisy area as a discotheque,” said Dr Riza. “
“If you go to a theatre and there is loud music, the ringing sound will increase,” he warns. “It is annoying and can affect you psychologically.”
The other advice is to buy noise-cancelling earphones which cut out ambient sound. “You will not have to raise the volume when things get noisy around you. Give your ears some rest. Listen for an hour and then stop for some time.”
Besides losing part of your hearing, listening to loud sounds for a continuous period of time, such as at a construction site, will make you highly stressed, sleep-deprived, anxious and you will become unsociable, says the doctor. The advice is to wear earplugs and custom-made ear muffs so that a loud sound will sound normal.
By Mahmood Saberi ?Senior Reporter
Gulf News 2011. All rights reserved.
