It's very loud Mummy
One of the most effective ways to stop ears ringing is by not subjecting yourself to loud noises in the first place.
And quite frankly, it doesn’t matter that you might only be in a
noisy place for only a couple of hours, the simple fact is that when it
is too loud for too long, it most certainly does effect our hearing .
Now if you’re one of those people who has had ringing in your ears after a concert, you’ll recognize this straight away
When you see people coming out of a club or concert after having seen
their favourite band or performer, you’ll notice a lot of them will be
playing with their ears in a vain attempt to try and stop the
high-pitched ringing or humming. It seems like they are trying to get
them working again.
Some people describe the noise as like listing to a radio that is not
in tune. For other people it seems more like a high-pitched whistle.
However, one thing that will be true, is that those who were closest
to the speakers will be ones having greater problems compared with
those further away. The hardier concert goers leaving the venue will
know that the effects of the loud music will only last for a day or so —
in many ways it’s just annoying – and seems not to be anything too
serious.
So why does it happen?
Have you ever wondered what it is that causes our ears ring after we’d been to a loud concert or other loud noises?.
Frankly, the answer is not complicated — our ears have been
temporarily damaged because we subjected them to a volume of noise far
higher than they’re meant to cope with.
This is because when sound enters the ear it causes tiny hairs within
the cochlear to vibrate. The nerve cells at the root of these hairs
pick up those vibrations and fire nerve impulses that then go through
the nervous system and on to the brain which then makes sense of what
has been heard.
Damage can occur in two ways.
How RInging in Ears is Caused -Video
Firstly, because the level of sound entering the years is so high it
has the effect of vibrating the hairs so violently that they become bent
or broken.
In the second case, the cells in the nerves at the base of the hair
which pick up these vibrations are hugely overstimulated by the sound.
Through suffering trauma of this magnitude, the nerve cells start to
fire on their own — even without there being any physical stimulation —
this sends pulses through to the brain which interprets that as noise
and so you get the ringing.
The thing is once you have got ringing in the ears from attending a
concert (or from any other loud noise) there is not really a lot you can
do about it — you’ll just have to live with it until it goes away on
its own.
Under normal circumstances, the hairs within the inner ear that just
get bent will straighten themselves out over a period of time. However,
if the hairs have been broken, then unfortunately the damage will be
permanent. And further exposure will only result in more hairs being
broken. If this pattern continues that will lead to an eventual
permanent loss of hearing.
Obviously the most sensible answer is not to expose your ears to loud
noises but that could mean that you would end up not going out anywhere
at all. And anyway, for most people, going to a few concerts a year
will not lead to permanent damage with their hearing returning to normal
within a day or so.
That said, there are a few things that you can do to help yourself
and these measures would be very worthwhile – particularly if you find
that your ears are taking longer and longer to come back to normal. the
longer recovery period just shows that damage is starting to be done to
your hearing and it could become permanent.
If you are a regular concert goer you might notice that now days many
people in the audience wear very discreet earplugs. This simple measure
means that they can still enjoy going to concerts — experiencing all of
the excitement of the music and live performance — simply popping out
their earplugs on the way out leaving their hearing still more or less
as it should be.
There is something you can do
Musicians Use Earplugs... Video
In fact, it’s not just concert goers that use earplugs nowadays.
Although they might be shy to admit it, many band members protect their
hearing through the use of discreet earplugs. Which if you think about
it is very sensible particularly as they rely on being able to hear and
play music in order to make their living.
Whilst it may be tempting to go and sit or stand at the very front of
the venue, it also means that you’re right next to the speakers. And
frankly giving up the pleasure of the close proximity to the stars or
experiencing the thrilling crush of the crowd is probably worth the
benefit of keeping your hearing as it should be for a lot longer. And
anyway, standing a little way back to means that not only that will you
have more room to move, but you’ll also have substantially less noise
going in your ears.
But you can guarantee that you’ll still be to hear the band — that’s for sure.
In all of that, while it’s not unknown, it’s fairly rare for people
to have permanent hearing damage through just attending concerts. In
fact for most people, it would normally take greatly extended exposure
to loud noises to cause permanent damage of this type.
However there is one place where historically hearing damage has been a much more frequent occurrence …
The Working Environment
In actual fact, you are more likely to receive permanent hearing
damage through being subjected to loud noises at work than you are at
concerts. This is because work-related noise is experienced every
working day — not just one evening every couple of months.
How loud is loud
A question that people will ask is “how loud is too loud?” Well, as a
simple guide, if you’re a metre away from somebody and have to raise
your voice or shout in order for that person to hear you, then your
environment is too noisy for the good health of your ears. And it’s a
medical fact that prolonged exposure to noise louder than 110 dB’s will
damage your hearing —and without a doubt, most concerts and many clubs
are louder than that.
Just to put things into perspective. Not many of us would enjoy
listening to a lawnmower for 3 hours — besides being totally boring as
well as noisy, a lawnmower is not actually as loud as the average
concert. Whereas in a gig, the noise levels will often be in excess of
110dB’s, the average lawnmower produces only about 85 dB’s. And most
government guidelines recommend that we don’t expose ourselves to noises
louder than that.
