![]() ![]() What about headphones? Unfortunately that question isn’t easy to answer because decibel ratings from headphones vary. A sound of about 105 dB – similar to a gas lawnmower or other power tools – can damage your hearing in less than 5 minutes. For instance, a 90 decibel (dB) noise – about the same as a loud motorcycle approximately 30 feet away – causes hearing damage in under 3 hours. The duration of the exposure matters just as much as the volume.Īs you can see, louder noises cause hearing damage much faster than quieter ones, but quiet ones can still cause damage over time. That’s the same reason going to a concert or using loud power tools can damage your ears as much as a much louder gunshot or explosion. That’s because your ears are not just damaged by the loudness of a noise, but by the length of exposure as well. Even listening to headphones or earbuds at a moderate volume can damage your hearing over time. ![]() ![]() However, headphones don’t have to be extremely loud to damage your ears. If they don’t get time to recover, the damage can be permanent. Headphones cause damage to your ears the same way other loud noises do, resulting in what audiologists call “ noise-induced hearing loss.” Over time the sounds from your headphones cause the hair cells in the cochlea to bend down too much or too severely. No cure exists for repairing a damaged inner ear. This type of noise-induced hearing damage is almost impossible to recover from. They may be too damaged to function normally any longer. In some cases, however, the cells never recover. The hair cells take time to recover from extreme vibrations caused by loud noise. This is what causes the sensation of “temporary hearing loss” after you are exposed to loud noises. Many loud noises cause the cells to bend or fold over. When you listen to sounds that are too loud for too long, these hair cells lose their sensitivity to vibration. Louder sounds cause stronger vibrations, which cause the hairs to move more. The cochlea is a fluid-filled chamber in your ear that contains many thousands of small “hairs.” When sound vibrations reach the cochlea, the fluid inside it vibrates and causes the hairs to move. This vibration is transmitted to the inner ear through several small bones, where it reaches the cochlea. ![]() When sound waves reach our ears, they cause the eardrum to vibrate. This is dangerous for your hearing because loud noises, in general, are damaging to your ears. The key danger of headphones is volume – the fact that they can produce very loud levels of sound very close to your ear. So what can you do to keep yourself safe from hearing loss caused by headphones or other audio devices? It’s reasonable to assume the same is true for adults using the same devices as well. Unfortunately, those same devices that make listening to music or talking on the phone so simple might also be damaging your ears.Īccording to a 2011 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the use of headphones and earbuds has led to a major increase in the prevalence of hearing loss in adolescents and young adults. Chances are you have a smartphone in your pocket, and a pair of headphones that connect it directly to your ears. ![]()
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