In most instances, hearing health complications are associated with noise. When in a noisy surrounding, you will always want to turn up your device’s volume past that of the environment. Consider, for example, being in a filthy room, and because you don’t want to associate yourself with the dirt, you opt to stare at a bright flashlight. You’ll end up blind, right? A similar case can happen in a noisy environment.
So, if you’re wondering whether headphones can make you deaf?
Yes, they can!
Essentially, noise affects the spiral ganglia neurons located at the auditory nerve, which are responsible for sensing noise. This reduces your ability to identify noisy environments and can expose you to great danger. This is the condition most elderly people suffer from—inability to hear when there’s some little noise in the background. It is referred to as neuropathy, one of the forms of deafness.
Besides, noise increases tinnitus, a condition where you feel some buzzing inside your ears, yet unable to listen to normal conversations.
How Loud Noise Can Damage Hearing
Through what process will loud sounds affect your earing mechanism? Well, to respond to this question effectively, we need to understand the relationship between any sound to your ears and your hearing system. So, let’s jump right in and explore some science!
Sound waves from the environment enter the ear and initiate vibration of the eardrum. This vibration is then transmitted to the cochlea via some small bones called ear-ossicles. The cochlea is a fluid-filled chamber inside which the fluid vibrates. The cochlea has numerous small hairs called auditory hair cells. At the instance when the sound gets to the cochlea, the contained fluid vibrates, and the auditory hair cells begin to move. The rate at which the hair cells move is dependent on the rate of vibration of the fluid, which flexes proportionally with sound volume.
So, what happens during exposure to loud sounds? Loud sound initiates rapid fluid vibrations, which translates to faster movement of the hair cells. As this happens, the auditory hair cells become less responsive to the fluid vibrations. This insensitivity develops gradually, as you continue being exposed to loud sounds. Eventually, they bend over and fall, which becomes the basis of temporary hearing loss. Temporary hearing loss may last for some hours, or a couple of days. When you first encounter this condition, it’s always advisable to seek medical attention from a professional physician as soon as possible.
However, in humans, these hair cells rarely regenerate. This means that the chances of recovering may be very minimal. In a condition when the hair cells are too damaged that they cannot regenerate, the condition becomes a permanent hearing loss, and hence a permanent Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). Currently, there is no established medication for correcting a damaged inner ear (cochlea).
How Headphones Damage Your Hearing
Through what means will headphones cause deafness? Continuous exposure to loud sounds, especially when trying to overcome background noise, may end up in deafness.
Headphones offer many good features that cannot be realized with ordinary speakers. They provide superior sound quality and create a virtual environment when in public. Whether it’s a podcast you want to listen to or a video you want to watch during a public gathering, headphones will always create you a virtual environment. However, this cool experience may also be costly. Keep reading to know why.
■ Turning up the Volume to Overcome Environmental Noise.
In a bid to overcome noise within your environment, you may decide to raise the volume until what you’re listening to is clear. Most environmental noise you’re likely to encounter will be from machines with very high noise. For instance, a motorcycle of, say 100db noise. In most devices, 70% of the rated volume ranges at around 85 decibels—the threshold beyond which your headphones become unfriendly. This may end up affecting your hearing health
■ Sound to Your Ears Gets Amplified.
When on a trip, say on a bur or perhaps an airplane, you may turn up the volume so that it bypasses that of the background. Now assuming that the background noise is about 75db, you may decide to raise the volume to 95db so that it is clear. Bearing in mind that the ear has its own amplifying mechanisms, the headphone volume becomes quite dangerous!
■ Prolonged Exposure to Medium or Even Low Volume Sound.
Similar to other loud sounds such as those from sirens and gunshots, the dangers associated with headphones can eventually cause Noise-Induced Hearing Loss. Loud sound causes bowing of hair cells over time. Depending on the severity of the sound, they may or may not regenerate.
Note that NIHL doesn’t only result from extremely loud sounds to your ears, listening to moderate volumes for a prolonged period can weaken the hair cells, causing them to fall, and eventually leading to NIHL. What does this mean? It implies that loud sound causes deafness instantly or within a very short period. However, the effects of soft sounds like those of headphones are felt over time.
To make it more practical, consider a 90db-noise motorbike, which is about 30 feet away. This is medium noise, which according to the CDC can take about 3 hours of consistent exposure to turn you deaf. In comparison to a gunshot which has a noise of 105db, you can turn deaf in less than 5 minutes.
■ Wrong Choice of Headphones
For environmental noise, we can easily identify the noise levels because most sources are rated. However, when it comes to headphones, it might get tricky to understand. This is because of the diversity exhibited by headphones in terms of their sound quality, performance, and decibel ratings. The overall volume to your ears depends on your device’s volume rating and also the performance of your headphones.
If you consider classic iPhone iPods, for example, they rate at 112db when in full swing. Listening to this amount of volume can destroy your ears within just a couple of minutes. About the duration, you can use 60% of the rated volume, which is about 80db, comfortably. However, this will only last for a couple of hours.
■ Frequent Use of In-Ear Headphones
The relationship between decibels and distance is inverse proportionality. As you get near the source of the sound, it becomes louder. By comparing in-ear and over-ear headphones, audiologists usually recommend the use of over-ear headphones. They provide a buffer in between the ear and eardrum and don’t pump sound directly into the eardrum as it is with earbuds.
Can Teenagers Suffer Hearing Loss Due to Headphone Use?
Do headphones endanger the hearing health of teenagers too? Actually, the question should be, “how severely”? Teenagers have been greatly affected by headphones. If you’ve been reminding your teenager to put off their headphones, it’s the high time that you took even more stern measures.
Statistics show that about 1 out of 5 teens exhibit some hearing complications, which is about 30% of similar statistics done two decades ago! Experts associate this spike to headphones.
According to a 2011-2012 study by the CDC prolonged exposure to loud noise or use of headphones at high volume for that matter can result in a permanent hearing loss, especially to children and teenagers. And Dr. James E. Foy adds that “even a mild hearing loss due to excessive noise could lead to developmental delays in speech and language.”
Maybe you’re wondering, “My kids aren’t yet teenagers, do they fall under this bracket?” Read on to find out how you can protect your child from hearing loss.
In case you need some more specialized hearing health attention, consider visiting a licensed Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO). They are the most qualified and skilled in handling hearing health.
How to Prevent Hearing Loss Due to Headphone Use
How then, can you remain safe while enjoying your headphones? It’s very simple. As we’ve previously pointed out, hearing loss is contributed by two factors: loudness of the sound and the duration of exposure. Therefore, to remain safe isn’t magic, always keep the volume low and avoid prolonged listening habits. However, let’s dive in a little bit deeper.
■ Get Used to Listening to Lower Volumes
Simple, right? All you need to do is ensure the volume from your device is always low. Audiologists recommend a volume below 60% of the rated volume. Besides, always endeavor to keep the volume from other sources in your room low, be it a television or a woofer.
There are some headphones though that have separate volume control settings. A typical example of these is Aftershokz headphones. Despite turning your iPhone volume down, you still hear the music playing. Therefore, turn down the volume on both your device and the headphones.
In case your device doesn’t have a preset recommended volume, it’s probably because it requires some custom settings. Navigate to Settings > Music > Volume limit and select maximum. You may also need to consult your device manual to know the actual recommended volume.
Taking all these measures can still be unfruitful. In that regard, consider the National Institutes of Health (NIH) advice, “Avoid noises that are too loud, too close, or last too long.”
■ Opt for Noise-Canceling Headphones
So, what are noise-canceling headphones? To explain it better, consider the noisy environment we discussed in the beginning. When the noise increases you tend to turn up the volume to overcome the noise and maintain your music above the noise in a bid to make it clear, which detriments your hearing health. This is where noise-canceling headphones come in handy. They are of two types: Active and Passive noise-canceling headphones.
Active noise-canceling headphones have an active noise control incorporated inside. The essence of this noise control is to cut short and minimize ambient sound so that you are in a perfect virtual environment. They constantly monitor the noise within your environment then generate soundwaves to counter the external noise.
On the contrary, passive noise-canceling headphones minimize externals sounds by their external design features such as high-density foam.
■ Wear Over-Ear Headphones, Not Earbuds or In-Ears
What’s the difference? In many instances, people use these two terms interchangeably. However, in the real sense, they totally mean two different things. Earphones are small and are usually inserted inside the ear canal of the user while headphones are big, usually worn around the head. Over-ear headphones are by far, safer than in-ear headphones.
Despite that the two can cause NIHL, in-ear headphones (earbuds or earphones) pose more danger to your hearing health as compared to headphones. Since earbuds are usually fitted inside the ear canal, they pump all the sound directly into the eardrum without any restriction, which is extremely harmful to your ears.
By using headphones, you are safer, though not entirely. This is because they sit outside the ears. The sound coming from the headphones doesn’t hit the eardrum directly, as in the case of earbuds. There’s a buffer in between the headphones and eardrum, which serves to minimize natural amplification significantly.
■ Take Frequent Listening Breaks
Really? Yes, you read it right. This is yet another behavioral safety measure, and it’s proven to work. As we saw earlier, listening to medium volume for a considerable period can be harmful. Low volume doesn’t give you all the freedom to listen all the time. Putting off your headphones after one hour goes a long way in enhancing your hearing health.
The principle involved in this case is a safety rule called the 60-60 rule. Essentially, it directs how much volume and how long you should have your headphones on. The first 60 implies that you should keep device volume to at most 60% the rated volume. The other 60 directs that you listen for a maximum of 60 minutes, then take a break.
Actually, the best practice would be taking a 5-minute break after every 30 minutes of headphone use, and if not possible, a 10-minute break after every 60 minutes would probably work just fine.
Conclusion
As can be seen, headphones can easily turn your hearing health south or worse still, make you deaf. However, that doesn’t mean you should cast-off your headphones. No. Embracing simple prevention measures such as listening to low volumes, taking frequent breaks, using headphones instead of earbuds, and purchasing a pair of noise-canceling headphones can go a long way in keeping you safe.