Attending a live concert can be a very enjoyable experience, but it can also be a risk factor in causing hearing loss for many individuals. Noise exposure and hearing loss can impact anyone, even after a single encounter with loud music. But that doesn’t mean one is getting old, nor that they’re completely losing their hearing.
Your hearing can be affected by any loud sound, especially music that is at a very high volume. This happens because of damage it causes to the small hair cells within the inner part of the ear. There are many factors that contribute to the varying degrees of damage to the hair cells within the ear, but attending one concert won’t ruin your hearing.
Want to know more about how noise exposure at entertainment venues can affect your hearing? Keep reading to learn about the different reasons why noise exposure and hearing loss are important, as well as some tips on how to protect your hearing.
Research into Noise Exposure and Hearing Loss
A study done by House Research Institute found that 72% of teenagers who attended a concert experienced temporary reduced hearing. While this is not believed to be a permanent loss of hearing, it can last for as long as 48 hours. The study also found that repeated exposure to music at the same levels can make damage to hearing permanent.
A few factors that determine the amount of damage done are: how loud a sound is and how long you are exposed to it. Sounds get measured in decibels, with every 10 decibels on a scale being two times as loud as the previous sound. A noisy street can be around 85 decibels, while a rock concert could be around the range of 115 decibels and upwards to 140 decibels.
Higher decibel exposure for longer periods of time can negatively impact hearing. Some researchers have made projections that by 2050 around 50 million people in America will have experienced hearing loss from exposure to loud music.
Plug Your Ears to Protect Your Hearing
A good way to help prevent hearing loss from noise exposure is to wear earplugs at live performances. While it can be uncomfortable at first, it’s an easy way to protect your ears from hearing loss at concerts. This is good for anyone at a live performance for hours and are exposed to speakers on full blast.
Some events have taken action to help attendees by partnering up with earplug companies. One rock group in the UK was able to offer free earplugs to everybody attending their concert so that they could wear them to help prevent hearing loss.
Musicians themselves often wear in-ear monitors when performing, since hearing loss in musicians has always been a big concern within the entertainment industry.
Preventing Hearing Loss from Noise Exposure
After reading our overview on noise exposure and hearing loss, you now understand how this affects many people. We’re exposed to loud noises all the time, but live performances can open us up to more hearing damage that is preventable with a few precautions. Find more great insights about hearing loss by visiting the AudioCardio website and reading the different posts on our blog.
