October is National Protect Your Hearing Month

October is National Protect Your Hearing Month, and the Atlanta Hearing Doctor, Atlanta’s premier hearing care center, is inviting individuals throughout the area to visit their office in Atlanta, GA, for a free assessment of their hearing protection needs. For people who work in the presence of loud noise (sounds above 85 decibels, such as the sound of a passing diesel truck), hobbyists who work with loud tools, hunters, musicians, music fans, and others who routinely find themselves in the presence of loud sounds, this is an exceptional opportunity to learn about the degree of risk they are exposing themselves to on a regular basis, and what they can do to preserve their hearing health.

Contrary to popular belief, exposure to excessive noise—not age—is the leading cause of permanent hearing damage, and continued exposure can worsen preexisting hearing problems. “Most people know that prolonged exposure to noise can be damaging to their hearing, but what most people don’t understand is how loud many of the sounds around them really are, and just how quickly hearing damage can occur,” cautions Dr. Maria Wynens, the Atlanta Hearing Doctor. “The piercing sound of some power tools can cause hearing damage in just a matter of minutes. Concerts or loud music on an MP3 player frequently exceed 100 decibels. At that volume, you start to damage your hearing after only 15 minutes of exposure.”

The Atlanta Hearing Doctor routinely offers hearing protection counseling to its patients with hearing loss. However, during the month of October, the Atlanta office is welcoming people throughout the community who are concerned about their levels of sound exposure to come in for a free consultation to learn how they can protect themselves from permanent hearing damage due to excess noise.

“Appropriate hearing protection is absolutely critical equipment for people who both work and play around loud noise,” says Dr. Maria Wynens. “Musicians in particular can really benefit from the kind of comfortable, custom-molded protection we can make for them quickly and fairly inexpensively. We look forward to sharing the facts about hearing damage with the public, and we encourage anyone who’s interested in protecting the future of their hearing to come in and learn what they can do to protect themselves from further hearing damage.”

The Atlanta Hearing Doctor is a full-service, independently owned audiology practice proud to be bringing better hearing to the people of Atlanta. Our AudigyCertified™ hearing care practice has helped thousands of patients with their hearing, and tinnitus, — and offers state-of-the-art diagnostic testing and expert fitting of hearing technology.