Ears - ways to protect your hearing

Causes of hearing loss or deafness include noise, trauma, certain medications and some diseases. Injuries such as a perforated eardrum or a head injury can also cause hearing loss. Once hearing is damaged, it often cannot be restored, so protecting your ears is important.

How we hear#

Sound is picked up by a small, spiral-shaped organ called the cochlea, located in the inner ear. Thousands of tiny hairs in the cochlea sense the vibrations and pass the message to the brain through the cochlear nerve. These sensitive hairs can be damaged by excessive noise, and once damaged they do not recover.

Loud noise#

Ringing in the ears (tinnitus) after exposure to loud noise is a warning sign that your ears have been overloaded. It is a mistake to think that only noise loud enough to cause earache can do damage. The inner ear can still be harmed by noise even when there is no pain. A useful rule of thumb is that if you need to shout to be heard over the noise, it may be loud enough to be damaging.

Suggestions to protect your ears from noise include:

• Avoid exposure to loud noise when you can.
• If you are concerned about noise levels at work, speak with your workplace health and safety officer.
• When loud noise is unavoidable, wear hearing protection such as earplugs, ear muffs or both.
• Wear earplugs in noisy environments such as night clubs, concerts or motor racing events.
• Remember that everyday equipment, such as lawnmowers, power tools and personal music players, can be loud enough to damage your hearing.

Medications and chemicals#

Ototoxicity is damage to the ear caused by medications or chemicals. Medications thought to affect hearing include those for malaria (quinine and chloroquine) and salicylates such as aspirin, although in these cases the hearing loss is believed to be temporary. Certain industrial chemicals, such as solvents, are also linked to hearing damage.

Suggestions to avoid medication-related hearing damage include:

• Discuss any concerns about your medications with your doctor.
• Take medications only as directed.
• See your doctor promptly if you notice unusual symptoms, such as tinnitus, while taking a medicine.
• If your work involves chemicals, talk to your health and safety officer about ways to reduce your exposure.

Diseases#

Hearing loss can be caused by viral illnesses including mumps, measles and rubella (German measles). These infections are more common in childhood, although adults who were not immunised and did not have the diseases as children may catch them too. Bacterial illnesses such as pertussis (whooping cough), meningitis and syphilis can also harm the ears. A tumour that grows on the hearing nerve, called an acoustic neuroma, can cause hearing loss and tinnitus.

Suggestions to avoid disease-related hearing damage include:

• Keep vaccinations up to date, in line with recommended immunisation schedules.
• If you fall ill, see your doctor for prompt diagnosis and treatment.
• Have persistent tinnitus or sudden hearing loss investigated by an ear specialist.
• Protect yourself from sexually transmissible infections by using condoms, and see your doctor if you think you may have been exposed.

Injury#

The middle and inner ears are protected by the temporal bones at the base and sides of the skull. A head injury involving trauma to these bones can cause hearing loss, and concussion can be enough to cause damage even if the bones are not broken.

Otitic barotrauma is hearing damage caused by changes in air pressure on either side of the eardrum, for example from descending or ascending through water too quickly while scuba diving.

Suggestions to avoid hearing damage through injury include:

• Wear a helmet while cycling or playing contact sports.
• Wear a seat belt when travelling by car.
• Avoid falls; for example, do not stand on the top rung of a ladder.
• Take all proper precautions while scuba diving.

Other ear care#

A range of conditions and events can cause temporary hearing loss. To reduce your risk:

• Do not try to clean your ears by poking anything into the ear canals. You may injure the delicate skin or pack earwax down harder.
• Reduce the risk of ear infections by treating upper respiratory infections promptly.
• Avoid swimming in dirty water.
• Dry your ears after bathing.

Key points#

• Causes of hearing loss or deafness include noise, trauma, certain medications and diseases.
• Injuries such as a perforated eardrum or head injury can also cause hearing loss.
• It is a mistake to believe that only noise loud enough to cause earache can cause damage.
• Ototoxicity is damage to the ear caused by medications or chemicals.
• See your doctor promptly if you notice unusual symptoms, such as tinnitus, while taking a medicine.

Where to get help#