When you have any issues with your hearing health, then you should talk to your audiologist about it. By far the most common issue that audiologists have to deal with is the risk of hearing loss. Hearing loss impacts more than a tenth of all adults, so it’s only natural to want to know the cause of hearing loss and what you can do to avoid it.

Hearing loss can be complex, and, in a lot of cases, it can begin to affect an individual because of a mixture of risk factors. Here, we’re going to look at five risk factors that can greatly increase your chance of experiencing hearing loss in your lifetime.

Exposure To Excessive Levels of Noise

Being exposed to levels of noise that are too loud can permanently alter your hearing. This can include being right beside a speaker at a rock concert or having a firework go off close to you or it can involve repeated exposure to levels of noise that are quieter, but still too loud for safety. One of the most common causes of noise-related hearing loss is listening to music and audio through earphones at their highest volume.

The louder a noise is, the less time it takes for it to do potentially irreversible harm to your hearing. Excessive levels of noise can also cause tinnitus, a ringing in your ears that can take a long way to go away.

Aging

That our hearing gets worse with age is a well-known fact at this point. The mechanics of this are well-known at this point, as well. The shape of the inner ear can change as we grow, and these changes can be exacerbated by genetics, smoking and other issues that cause our cells to age faster.

The change to be aware of is the tiny hair cells in the inner ears, those responsible for receiving soundwaves and transmitting them to the brain as electric signals. Over time, these cells can become damaged and even die, which typically first results in us losing the ability to hear higher-pitched noises but can eventually affect all of our hearing.

Ear Infections

Otitis media, or middle ear infections, are the most prevalent infections and can affect us at all ages, being common in younger people too. The ears can become inflamed as a result of these infections, and the swelling caused by this can immediately affect your hearing and cause severe ear pain. You should seek treatment for an ear infection as soon as you can to minimize the risk of permanent hearing loss.

Injury

Injuries to the head or the ear can do both short-term and lasting damage to your ear. There are three bones in the ear that play a major role in our perception of sound. Injuries can adjust the position of these bones, which can mean that sound isn’t sent to the inner ear properly. You could also rupture your eardrum or damage the nerves in the ear, both of which can affect your hearing.

Medical issues and Medications

The list of medical conditions that can be linked to hearing loss is growing on a regular basis. High blood pressure, strokes and tumors have all been linked to hearing loss. Brain injury and diabetes can also be linked as well. What’s more, even taking certain medications may raise the chances of experiencing hearing loss at some point in your life.

This can include medications that alter your blood pressure, but can also include chemotherapy drugs, certain antibiotics and loop diuretics that are used to treat heart and kidney conditions. As such, when you’re talking to your audiologist about suspected changes to your hearing health, you should always make sure to give them as thorough a medical history as you can, even if you’re not sure how certain parts would be relevant.

Get in Touch with Your Audiologist Today

Some of the risk factors above, such as aging, are going to affect everybody at some point in their life, while others can be controlled, prevented or mitigated. However, if you want to be as informed on the condition of your hearing health as possible, then you are going to want to visit your audiologist.

Talk to your audiologist and arrange a hearing test to find out if hearing loss is affecting you and, if so, what you can do to treat it. Call Advanced Hearing of Brighton at 810-355-2245 today.