Tips for Healthy Ears
We take our ears and hearing for granted, yet if we neglect to take proper care of our ears we could end up with problems and issues. To ensure that our ears stay healthy and strong into our old age it is important to look after them. Read on for some great tips for maintaining healthy ears.
Tone down the volume
To keep your eardrums from suffering damage, don't blast them with loud sounds or music. Long-term exposure to high levels of sound can wear out the tiny hair cells of the inner ear over time that protect the eardrum, resulting in more sound exposure to the eardrums. Hearing loss is usually an accumulative process gradually happening over time due to loud sound exposure, so keep the volume down where possible and minimize risk. This includes making sure you do not stand or sit next to a speaker at a concert, party or venue. This especially includes keeping headphone volume at a reasonable level, especially if they are ear bud style headphones. If you work with equipment that is possibly damaging to the ears, such as with power tools and construction tools, always wear ear-protecting headgear designed to help cancel out sound.
Care whilst cleaning
Cleaning ears with cotton buds is a normal practice for most of us. However, over cleaning the ears can actually be quite harmful. Earwax is designed to protect the ear, so a small amount of wax is beneficial to help protect the delicate eardrum. If you must use cotton buds make sure to use gentle swabbing actions and make sure not to push the bud too far into the ear. Pushing the bud far into the ear in a stabbing motion can result in the wax being pushed further into the ear canal compacting it. If you find that you do have compacted earwax in your ear, always consult a doctor to help with this. Never attempt to try deal with it on your own as you may end up making the problem much worse.
Specialist care
If you notice any problems with your ears always visit your doctor. Your doctor can then diagnose what the problem is and either treat it or arrange for you to visit an audiologist. Usually for simple ear infections a doctor will prescribe some antibiotics and rest but for more complicated issues your doctor will most likely refer you to a specialist audiology doctor. Audiology specializes in ear health and an audiologist will run through a series of test to source what the problem might be. These tests include hearing and balance testing. If it turns out that you have hearing damage then an audiologist can arrange for you to have a hearing aid fitted. They will also be able to help you adjust to the hearing aid and give you care instructions for it, such as making sure you perform daily listening checks and regular battery checking. An audiologist will also teach you how to care for the hearing aid if you ever encounter problems such as if the hearing aid gets wet.
Tone down the volume
To keep your eardrums from suffering damage, don't blast them with loud sounds or music. Long-term exposure to high levels of sound can wear out the tiny hair cells of the inner ear over time that protect the eardrum, resulting in more sound exposure to the eardrums. Hearing loss is usually an accumulative process gradually happening over time due to loud sound exposure, so keep the volume down where possible and minimize risk. This includes making sure you do not stand or sit next to a speaker at a concert, party or venue. This especially includes keeping headphone volume at a reasonable level, especially if they are ear bud style headphones. If you work with equipment that is possibly damaging to the ears, such as with power tools and construction tools, always wear ear-protecting headgear designed to help cancel out sound.
Care whilst cleaning
Cleaning ears with cotton buds is a normal practice for most of us. However, over cleaning the ears can actually be quite harmful. Earwax is designed to protect the ear, so a small amount of wax is beneficial to help protect the delicate eardrum. If you must use cotton buds make sure to use gentle swabbing actions and make sure not to push the bud too far into the ear. Pushing the bud far into the ear in a stabbing motion can result in the wax being pushed further into the ear canal compacting it. If you find that you do have compacted earwax in your ear, always consult a doctor to help with this. Never attempt to try deal with it on your own as you may end up making the problem much worse.
Specialist care
If you notice any problems with your ears always visit your doctor. Your doctor can then diagnose what the problem is and either treat it or arrange for you to visit an audiologist. Usually for simple ear infections a doctor will prescribe some antibiotics and rest but for more complicated issues your doctor will most likely refer you to a specialist audiology doctor. Audiology specializes in ear health and an audiologist will run through a series of test to source what the problem might be. These tests include hearing and balance testing. If it turns out that you have hearing damage then an audiologist can arrange for you to have a hearing aid fitted. They will also be able to help you adjust to the hearing aid and give you care instructions for it, such as making sure you perform daily listening checks and regular battery checking. An audiologist will also teach you how to care for the hearing aid if you ever encounter problems such as if the hearing aid gets wet.
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