Tips to Preserve Your Hearing

If other people can hear the music through your earphones, or you shove Q-tips a little too far into your ear, you may be causing irreversible damage to your hearing.

Dr. Darius Kohan, chief of otology and neurology at Lenox Hill Hospital, offers up some tips to preserve your hearing just in time for Save Your Hearing Day.

“When people are listening to music with earphones or ear buds and, if they are too loud, they potentially will damage their hearing and it may be permanent,” he said. “Unfortunately, a lot of people enjoy their music far too loud and they’re making it into a vicious circle. The louder the music, the more hearing loss they have.”

Loud music can cause intense vibrations within the ear that can damage what’s called the hair cells in the cochlea, which is found in the inner ear and translates sound into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain. This can cause high frequency hearing loss, which Dr. Kohan said may be irreversible.

“It’s not just the volume that’s important, it also is the duration that you’re exposed to that sound volume,” he said.

When it comes to Q-tips, Dr. Kohan says the old adage is true: nothing smaller than your elbow should go in your ear canal. That includes Q-tips.

“It’s fine to use the Q-tip on the outside of the ear, but you do not want to go too deep,” he said. “You can even go to the edge of the ear canal but you do not want to go deep in the ear canal. You’re actually going to push the wax deeper, hurt the skin and potentially rupture the eardrum.”

The ear is mostly self-cleaning. But, Kohan suggests gently cleaning the ear canal with a moist sponge or towel after a shower or bath.

To see a video about this, click here: http://bit.ly/1KFjwuv