An important question our Doctors of Audiology ask during your case history is if you have been exposed to loud noise. Loud noise can be very damaging to your ears. The organ responsible for hearing, the cochlea, is a small and easily damaged part of the body. There are tiny hair cells inside the cochlea responsible for your hearing. When you are exposed to loud noise, it can damage or break those hair cells, which causes hearing loss.
Many times, patients do not report any exposure to loud noise because it happened a long time ago. Even if you weren’t around loud noise recently, that can still affect your ears and your hearing, and show up many years later on your hearing test.
Some examples of loud noise could be hunting, working in a factory, a military background, or even loud concerts! Have you ever been to a very loud concert where you left and it felt like you had cotton in your ears and possibly heard some ringing? That is an example of a place that was too loud that could have damaged your ears.
If you are around loud noise, make sure you are wearing your hearing protection to ensure your ears are safe! If you think your hearing may have been affected by noise, please contact Gardner Audiology at 800-277-1182 or email info@gardneraudiology.com to schedule an appointment to have your hearing checked!
