Prevention
Our hearing can be affected by several causes and these include but are not limited to:
- Medications and drugs
- Head injuries
- Noise
There are steps that can be taken to minimise the effect that medications and noise have on your hearing. Be proactive about the medications that you are taking and speak to your Pharmacist to ensure that the medication you are taking does not have side effects that could impact on your hearing, balance and tinnitus.
Noise induced hearing loss can be managed and prevented by being aware of the different types of hearing protection available and making sure that the devices that you are wearing are in good order to ensure maximum protection. Remember to have breaks when working in loud noise as it is often not only the level of noise but the length of time you spend in noisy environments, it is important to protect your hearing. There are several types of hearing protection available and at Sharon King Hearing we can help with custom made ear protection.
If you are listening to loud music, it is important to be aware of the level at which you are listening and the length of time you are exposed to the music, if you are wearing headphones you should have the music at a “moderate” level. A good guide is if other people can hear the music from your headphones, then you are listening to the music too loud.
It is much better to prevent hearing loss by being proactive and caring for your hearing by wearing appropriate hearing protection in environments that will cause damage to your hearing. Whether this is at work, at home, attending music festivals or any noisy environments.
Ear Wax
Wax or Cerumen is a natural and normal production of our ears. Our ears are self-cleaning and this is the reason we have wax as the job of wax is to protect our ears from dust and foreign bodies from entering the ear canal. When we talk or chew it moves our ear canal and slowly moves the wax out of the ear without us even realising. Cerumen or wax only becomes a problem when it blocks the ear canal and impacts on our hearing. We can care for our ears by NOT using cotton buds or anything like bobby pins or keys to remove the wax as this often has the affect of pushing the wax deeper into the canal causing a blockage. If wax build up is a problem for you, at Sharon King Hearing Centres we may be able to help as we are able to perform manual extraction and micro suction wax removal techniques . Call our office for further information.