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Causes of hearing loss and prevention methods.

Human hearing or acoustic perception of air (water) vibrations is provided by the sensory system of the ear. The audible range of audibility is in the range of 16 - 20,000 Hz. A person perceives sound with a power of less than 60 Hz as vibration. But the range of audibility of sound waves may differ slightly for each person, taking into account his age, hereditary characteristics of the structure of the sensory apparatus of the ear, acquired diseases, environmental features that affect the sensitivity of the ear sensors.

As the body ages, the sensory capabilities of the auditory analyzer decrease due to natural biological processes. But there are a number of factors that cause hearing loss at a younger age and eventually lead to either partial or complete hearing loss.

All causes of hearing loss can be divided into external and internal:

External reasons:

Long-term listening to loud sounds associated with harmful noisy working and living conditions;
Listening to musical compositions in raised tones and through a subwoofer, leading to acoustic trauma;
Listening to percussion instruments, gunfire sounds, engine noises, jet engine sounds;
Mechanical injuries to the head and ear (blows, concussions, punctures, water entering the inner part of the ear), which disturb the structure and function of the human hearing system;
Various kinds of wounds in the ear and maxillofacial wounds;
Chemical injuries of the inner parts of the ear (ingress of vapors, suspensions, liquids of chemically active substances), destroying the biological structures of the inner ear;
Medicines for external use, improperly applied or used in an overestimated dose for the treatment of inflammatory diseases of the ear;
Side effects of drug treatment of diseases of various organs;
Ambient pressure drops when changing from a high pressure environment (atmospheric, water pressure) to a low pressure environment and vice versa.

Internal reasons:

Hereditary anomalies of the structure of the hearing aid;
Functional diseases of the hearing organs;
Infectious diseases and complications of infectious diseases affecting the hearing organs;
Circulatory disorders in the head and neck area;
Innervation disorders of the hearing aid and damage to the auditory nerve;
Pathology of the auditory center - the part of the brain responsible for hearing;
Complications of endocrine disorders and other kinds of disorders at the biochemical and microbiological level of the body's functioning.

Hearing loss signs:

Poor audibility of colloquial speech at a distance of 6-10 meters from oneself;
Poor discernibility or indistinguishability of a whisper;
Feeling of a stuffy ear (or ears);
Extraneous noises (rustling, ringing, whistling, crackling, buzzing) heard in the ear;
In some cases, dizziness, nausea, imbalance of the body may appear.

What is hearing loss prevention?

In order to preserve your hearing, it is necessary to adhere to some methods of preventing hearing loss.

There is a regularity in which the duration of listening to sounds that are too loud, traumatic for the sensory apparatus of the ear, should be inversely proportional to the volume of sound vibrations in time. That is, the louder (stronger) the sound heard by a person, the less time you need to spend on listening to it.

And this means that it is necessary to dose listening to music in raised tones (especially the sounds coming through the subwoofer), at concerts, choose places as far as possible from the location of the speakers, avoid places for repair work using punches, electric saws, jackhammers and similar construction works related to the extraction of loud sounds. If it is impossible to leave the place of excessively loud sound design, wear headphones or anti-noise rubber or silicone earbuds (antiphones, earplugs) to reduce the strength of the acoustic shock wave.

It is very important to timely and correctly treat acute respiratory infections, not to self-medicate ear diseases, to use protective devices in chemically hazardous industries.

Protection against temperature extremes is of great importance in the prevention of hearing loss. Freezing, wind blowing into the ears, drafts can cause irreparable damage to the human hearing aid.

It is possible to accurately determine whether the hearing level is decreasing and how much it is reduced, using audiometry, which will reveal an abnormal deviation from the normal hearing and will allow you to decide on methods of hearing restoration.