Hearing Center: The Facts About Auditory Impairment

People involved with a hearing center and professionals steeped in the world of auditory impairment prevention are consistently amazed by how little the average person knows about their own ears and how to protect them. A hundred years ago, humans didn't have to worry much about the extraordinarily loud noises we are constantly bombarded with today, unless they were involved in a war. Five hundred years ago, the decibel levels of today would have been utterly unthinkable under any circumstances, and the evolution of modern man goes back much further than that. Our ears weren't meant for this kind of decibel level. Here are some facts about impairment, some of which may come as a big surprise. Experts See Auditory Impairment Getting Worse As opposed to many other diseases and illnesses that modern medicine is managing to either eradicate or discourage, auditory impairment and deafness is actually getting worse. Treatments are certainly improving, but the actual rate of occurrence is growing. Experts predict that by the year 2030, nearly 80 million people in America will be suffering from some degree of auditory loss. This may be good news for the local hearing center or for manufacturers of listening aids, but it is a sad state for something that is often very preventable. Auditory Impairment Has Consequences You may not think it would be a big deal to have to use a listening impairment aid or visit a hearing center for assistive techniques after suffering auditory loss. But studies have shown that there are big consequences for those whose ears aren't functioning as they should be. Our hearing is one of the easiest senses to take for granted. When it is gone, however, the results can be stark. Consequences include a higher rate of unemployment, higher incidences of depression, and a proliferation of anxiety and stress-related disorders. Personal Music Players Can Be Dangerous We live in the age of the iPod. Go to any college town and you will see thousands of 20-somethings on the streets with earbuds hanging from their heads. While listening to music at safe volumes should not be dangerous, people have a tendency to underestimate how easy it is to exceed those volumes. Most experts agree that turning your personal music player past the halfway mark on the volume setting can easily move it into the dangerous listening category. Of course, not every MP3 is created equally, so this statement isn't true for every device, but it is nonetheless important to be careful about how loudly you listen to your music.