Sometimes, you may not even notice that your hearing has been damaged until it’s too late. The early stages of hearing loss are difficult to identify, particularly in our modern life, which is full of a cacophony of sounds.

We’ve put together a number of tracks so that you can experience what it’s like to have various types of hearing loss. This will enable you to experience the effects of hearing loss for yourself. And hopefully, it will also encourage you to take your hearing more seriously. If you know people with hearing loss, these files will enable you to get a glimpse of what the world sounds like to them.

If you think you may already have hearing loss, no matter how slight, it may well be worth visiting your GP and getting a referral to an audiologist so that your hearing can be tested and perhaps stop it from getting worse before it is too late.

Demonstrations of the different types of hearing loss

To demonstrate the variety of different types of hearing loss we have made a series of recordings using a selection of text from one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes’ book, which is legally out of copyright, and therefore appropriate for open samples. Using this audio you can spot the differences and understand for yourself what it might be like to have each of these hearing problems.

For the purposes of comparison, here is the recording as heard with normal hearing so that you can compare the difference for yourself:

Examples of Tinnitus

Tinnitus is a condition that can result from a number of causes, the most common of which is noise induced hearing loss. Here are the examples of the reading as heard by Tinnitus sufferers:

• Tinnitus tone At 3.5 khz

• Tinnitus tone at 8 khz

• Tinnitus random noise

• Tinnitus pulsed noise

Mild High Frequency Hearing Loss

Medium High Frequency Hearing Loss

Severe High Frequency Hearing Loss

Recruitment Hearing Loss

With this condition, the ears are deaf until the sound level exceeds a threshold after which the ears suddenly “turn on” producing a choppy sound that is very hard to understand.

Ways To Prevent Hearing Loss

As all of these files demonstrate, hearing loss of any kind is an unpleasant condition that can affect an individual’s quality of life.  Psychological problems including anxiety, sleep disturbances, depression and concentration difficulties are common in those with tinnitus, and the more severe the condition, the more disruptive the hearing loss is to an individual’s every day functioning.

Prolonged exposure to processed sound is one of the main causes of hearing loss and therefore managing an individual’s exposure to this is one of the key ways of preventing hearing loss. For wearers of headphones and earpieces, technology such as HDM® (Hearing Dose Management®) measures the sound level being delivered to the headphones and earpieces and controls it to ensure it doesn’t exceed safe levels.

Find out more about how the HDM^®Pro could help prevent hearing loss.

What is Tinnitus?

Every time you expose yourself to such high levels of sound, you risk tinnitus or NIHL, both of which are permanent. The damage to your hearing is irreversible. You can get hearing aids, but you can’t get your hearing back.

The Importance of Ear Protection at Concerts

You may have sometimes noticed temporary ringing in your ears after a concert, or a sporting event, or being somewhere equally loud. That may have been TTS (Temporary Threshold Shift), which was assumed to be temporary since the ringing stops after a while. However, research has found that it is not the case. Everyday Hearing mention that “the tiny microscopic hair cells in the inner ear were affected by repeatedly being exposed to loud noises. The new research was carried out on animals and now humans are showing that it not just the hair cells that are being affected.” What they discovered is that even one concert can damage hearing nerve fibres, which potentially affects your ability to understand speech.

That’s why it’s important to use earplugs when you are attending concerts. Of course with technological improvements, it is possible to get earplugs that let you enjoy the music without sacrificing the quality, and without costing you your hearing.

Do your research. You can get a variety of earplugs on the market, as well as have them custom-made. Use something like LimitEar to protect your hearing on an ongoing basis, and take better care of your ears.

In 2014, the theme for the International Ear Care Day was, “Ear Care Can Avoid Hearing Loss.”

However, the 2015 Theme for the International Ear Care Day is, “Make Listening Safe.” At LimitEar, we are constantly working on both. Right now, we are hoping to create a solution that makes hearing for children safer.

Noise-induced hearing loss is a big problem in modern society. It happens more frequently than most people realise. The amount of noise that many of us get exposed to on daily basis – and often voluntarily – is well above the recommended daily levels. The use of earphones and headphones are particularly major contributors.

Promoting Protection for Ears

At LimitEar, that’s what we are constantly trying to do. Hearing care is not a glamorous issue, and therefore it is not very well publicized. Most people, when they think about hearing loss, think about the elderly or people born with hearing defects but no one thinks about the fact that we – as a society – are constantly putting our hearing at risk by our own actions.

We continue to champion these issues, and we want to do our best to ensure that all hearing loss that can be prevented is prevented.

We hope you will join us, by spreading the word.

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) is a lot more common than you may think. NIHL happens due to loud sounds that damage your ears; you don’t need to be consistently listening to rap with headphones at full volumes to get NIHL. Certain sounds can cause permanent damage even if you are exposed to them for only a brief period of time. These sounds can damage sensitive structures in the inner ear, which may result in NIHL.

One of the biggest problems with NIHL is that it’s not always immediately noticeable. This is also one of the main reasons why it’s often not taken as seriously as it should be. You may not find out for years that your hearing was damaged through exposure to particular sounds.

The important thing, therefore, is to become aware of how common and how likely the risk of noise-induced hearing loss is, and that it is better to take steps to prevent it than to attempt to cure it.

Symptoms of Noise-Induced Hearing loss

NIHL can happen to people of all ages. Most people know that loud music, use of headphones over recommended volumes, or exposure to noisy machinery, industrial tools, concerts and gigs can cause a lasting damage.

However, most people aren’t aware that it’s not just extremely loud sounds that result in hearing damage. Everyday sounds can also cause irreversible hearing damage. It’s not just about the loudness. Time is a factor too. How long you are exposed to sound plays a big part in how much damage it may cause to your hearing.

For example, if you hear a very loud sound, like a shotgun gun going off near you or feedback from an amplifier at a concert, for example, the energy from the sound is absorbed in one go, in a short amount of time. However, the same amount of energy exposure over time – i.e. from listening to music – delivers the same dose of sound and would eventually result in similar hearing damage.

This is when things get complicated, and this is what most people aren’t aware of – that we need to be careful with everyday sounds, as well as those exceptional ones.

Dealing With Regular Exposure to Noise

When I’m commuting on the underground, and if I’m listening to music, I turn up the volume really loud because the noise of the tube makes it difficult to hear at normal levels. I’ve seen other people do it too. They may be watching a video on their phone or listening to music, and as the background noise of the tube gets louder, they crank up the volume on their headphones.

If you do this every day during your commute, then you are exposing yourself to a harmful sound dose over quite a long time which would inevitably end up with hearing damage.

Causes of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

To know whether you are suffering from, or at a risk of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss, you need to start paying attention to the types of noises you are constantly exposing yourself to.

Think about some of the common causes:

Are you consistently exposed to loud noises (85 decibels or above?)

Do you wear headphones for work?

Do you wear headphones for personal use?

Do you spend a lot of time in loud clubs or at concerts?

Are you surrounded by people who keep turning up the TV?

Are you constantly exposed to loud industrial noises, such as machinery or tools?

Once you have an awareness of how much risk noise poses in your life, particular noises in your everyday life, you can take preventative measures against NIHL.

Find out more about NIHL and how to prevent hearing loss now.

Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that “1.1 billion teenagers and young adults are at risk of developing hearing loss” because of excessive use of earphones/headphones. The prolonged exposure, as well as high volumes, are causing damage without people even realising. Just look around you when you are on a public transport or walking down the street – how many people are wearing earphones?

Every day, I see people on the tube wearing earphones – where the noise of the underground train is already so loud, that the only way they can listen to music is by cranking up the volume to unsafe levels. And yet, most people are doing it, for their entire commute, listening well above recommended safe levels and harming their hearing.

Creating Ear Protection for Everybody

We are in the process of creating a solution that could help prevent hearing damage for children and teenagers, and to that end, we created this survey. If you could take a few moments to fill it out, it will help us create better solutions and hopefully protect children.

Hearing loss is not a glamorous issue. It is usually just relegated to the realm of the aged, but in our modern society, where most of us are constantly plugged into one gadget or another, it is becoming a wider spread problem than ever before.

But what about you?

How often do you use earphones? How loud do you keep the volume? Are you aware that prolonged exposure or high-volume exposure may be causing damage to your hearing?

Exposing yourself to too much noise could be damaging to your health. Make sure you’re protecting yourself by taking all of the necessary precautions you can take when listening to music, going to concerts or at work where you are exposed to high volumes of noise.

Find out more about NIHL and how to prevent hearing loss now.

Why are we Exposing Ourselves to Noise-Induced Hearing Loss?

With our modern life so full of gadgets, most of us are plugged into some form of sound or another on a regular basis. Whether it’s watching TV with surround sound system, or listening to music through headphones, we’re constantly exposed to noises in greater frequency and volume than ever before.

Just recently the WHO (the World Health Organisation) wrote that 1.1. A billion teenagers and young adults are at risk of developing hearing loss because of excessive use of earphones which causes hearing loss caused by loud music.

The Daily Mail article further argues that ‘hearing loss has implications beyond not being able to hear properly. Studies show that it affects psychological well- being and is linked to a greater risk of depression and isolation, with younger people the worst affected.’

What is a safe volume for headphones?

The maximum safe level is 80 decibels (dB), but most personal audio devices, including MP3 players and phones, can turn up the volume to more than 100 dB.

Most people are not even aware of this potential risk which makes this a bigger problem. We are so used to our technological conveniences, so used to taking our ears for granted, that we don’t think about what damage we may be causing.

How to Protect Your Ears

Using devices such as HDM® can prevent you from exposing yourself to dangerous levels of sound, causing you to develop noise-induced hearing loss. The inbuilt volume controls to protect your hearing, and the warning messages give you information when you are exceeding recommended safety levels. HearAngel® app tracks noise levels to protect your hearing and that of your children. With so many potential dangers to our hearing, particularly to the sensitive ears of young children, it is essential to not only spread awareness but to start taking steps to protect your hearing.