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Prevention of Hearing Loss in Children

Which daily habits threaten the sense of hearing?

Hearing loss may be a progressive and normal part of the aging process, but exposure to excessively loud noise is one of the main causes of hearing loss.

Particularly in recent years, due to the modern lifestyle and the extremely noisy environment, the incidents of traumatic hearing loss have increased at an alarming rate.

Regarding children and adolescents, frequent use of electronic devices coupled with poor quality earphones that do not filter out the high volume of sound leads to prolonged capillary cell overload and ear strain. The damage caused to the cochlea causes either short-term or even permanent hearing loss.

Experts consider the exposure to more than 85dB dangerous, but it is readily evident that many of our usual habits exceed this level. Indicatively:

150dB Fireworks. Maximum pain threshold.  Risk of damage within just 7 seconds

140dB Jet engine during take-off. Risk of hearing damage within just 15 seconds

137dB Audiences in open-air (stadium arena) concert. Risk of hearing damage within just 30 seconds

120dB Rock Concert. Risk of hearing damage within 4 minutes

115dB Baby cry, jet-ski engine. Risk of hearing damage within 8 minutes

110dB Mp3 Player. Risk of hearing damage within 15 minutes

105dB Metro/subway platform. Risk of hearing damage within 30 minutes

95dB Motorcycle engine. Risk of hearing damage within 2 hours

90dB Truck/lorry engine. Risk of hearing damage within 4 hours

85dB Starting Point for the Institute of Occupational Health and Safety regulation. Risk of hearing damage within 8 hours

70dB Heavy road traffic, vacuum cleaner

60dB Interpersonal conversation, dishwasher

40dB Quiet room

For this reason, it is necessary to use specially manufactured, filter-fitted earplugs such as Pluggerz, which are available in children sizes in order to offer perfect fitting even for narrow auditory canals.

Another major cause of hearing loss is damage caused by foreign objects such as the use of a cotton swab, as the cerumen may get pushed inadvertently onto the eardrum, either damaging the tympanic membrane itself or increasing the production thereof, which can lead to a conductive hearing loss.