Hearing loss is a problem that you don’t have to worry about until you get old, right?
That’s only partially true. Hearing loss from age deterioration, or presbycusis, is the most common form of hearing loss. But the second most common form, noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), can impact the lives of individuals in any age group.
Approximately 12.5 percent of US children ages six to 19 already have some degree of noise-induced hearing loss, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. This statistic is a cause for concern, because the hearing loss they are experiencing is sensorineural hearing loss, a permanent loss of hearing.
How is it possible that my child is at risk for hearing challenges?
There are couple of assumptions about noise-induced hearing loss that often keep parents in the dark about its risk to their children. NIHL can occur when a person is exposed to an explosion or extreme noise event, or it can be due to ongoing exposure to loud noise at work.
However, your child can also be exposed to potential NIHL on a daily basis as they use headphones and earbuds on their personal listening devices or smartphones.
Our team of audiologists at Brampton Hearing Services is greatly concerned about the hearing health of our children throughout the communities we serve in the Ontario area, and we hope that shining a light on the risk of noise-induced hearing loss in children might help us prevent it.
How Does Noise Damage Your Ears?
According to Brian Fligor, ScD, chair of the World Health Organization’s Make Listening Safe Taskforce, “Human ears weren’t made to handle excessively loud sounds most of the time.”
He expounds further: “Our ancestors had to listen for tiny sounds—a crack of a branch in the woods, for example, or a bird call, indicators of prey they wanted to eat or predators that wanted to eat them. It was rare to encounter anything loud enough to damage the ears, like 110 dBA or more.”
We are regularly exposed to sounds in the 110-decibel range in our modern environment from motorcycles, chainsaws, concerts, and headphones and earbuds.
“A waste product is produced each time the tiny hairs of the inner ear trigger the nerve cells to fire,” Fligor continues. “It’s somewhat like your leg muscles building up lactic acid after a very long run.”
Quiet sounds produce virtually no waste product. And after a short burst of noise, the cells usually have time to recover and eliminate the waste. However, with loud, ongoing noise, they do not have time to clear out the waste, leading to the death of the cell.
You can easily remember this using the formula:
Volume + Duration = Damage
Even noise a few decibels above 85 dB (normal hearing level) can cause damage after a few hours of exposure as these cells become overloaded with waste and die.
Unfortunately, while many children do not show signs of the damage early on, the damage could catch up with them later in life. Statistics from the CDC reveal that one in five individuals between 20 and 29 years of age have audiometric notches (sections of their hearing frequency range) that are damaged or missing due to noise exposure.
The Silent Epidemic
Noise-induced hearing loss is a silent epidemic because the damage is being done beyond what you can see. Much of the time, it is being done while your children are sitting quietly and listening to music, watching videos, or playing video games using headphones or earbuds.
The top-selling earphones on the market, Apple Airpods Max, produce a maximum volume of around 100 dB. Though better than 110 dB, even 20 minutes of continuous listening at that level is enough to cause permanent damage to your child’s hearing.
Parents, grandparents, teachers, and audiologists must make a concerted effort to educate our youth on the importance of maintaining manageable volumes and monitor those volumes periodically.
Are You Concerned About Your Child’s Risk for NIHL?
Nothing is more important and more fragile than the health of our children, so the potential permanent damage of noise-induced hearing loss should be as great of a concern to you as it is to us.
If you’re worried that your child could develop hearing loss due to ongoing exposure to noise, your best defence against its damaging effects is to schedule frequent hearing assessments with a hearing care professional.
I do not set an age limit on hearing assessments, so regardless of whether your child is a teenager or even younger, I’m ready to provide a noninvasive hearing assessment in a comfortable and friendly atmosphere at Brampton Hearing Aid Services.
Schedule a hearing assessment using this link or call us at (905) 791-2203 in order to ensure better hearing for your child now and in the future.
