Hockey, baseball, football, basketball, tennis, boxing and cycling are just a few of the many sports people enjoy watching or playing. If you play one or more of these sports, you know how important safety is to your continued participation. While broken limbs, carpal tunnel and brain injuries are crucial injuries to protect against, fewer think about how hearing safety factors into sports.
With nearly 15% of U.S. adults living with hearing loss, it’s crucial to understand how to protect your ears, especially if you regularly participate in activities that could damage them. Let’s look at how sports can damage your hearing and what you can do to protect it.
How Sports Can Damage Your Hearing
There are two main ways sports can damage your hearing:
- Noise exposure. Repeated or long-term exposure to sounds at or above 85 dB, roughly the sound of a gas-powered lawn mower, can damage hearing. Sports frequently introduce unsafe noise levels, from screaming fans and blaring whistles at a football game to the wind rushing past your ears on a high-speed bike ride.
- Physical trauma. Physical injuries to the ear can damage the outer, middle or inner ear components responsible for delivering sound to the brain. Contact sports can cause this damage, resulting in temporary or permanent hearing loss. While football or rugby are the most common culprits, hearing loss can arise from unexpected places, like getting hit with an errant golf ball at The Savannah Golf Club.
Luckily, there are ways you can protect your hearing without sacrificing your favorite pastimes.
How To Protect Your Hearing During Sports
There are a few ways you can protect your hearing during sports:
- Wear a helmet during all contact sports, even during practice
- Wear high-fidelity earplugs (special earplugs that filter noise without sacrificing sound quality) when possible
- Don’t blare music during training sessions
- Ask your coach to step a few feet away before using their whistle
You can stave off unnecessary hearing loss by implementing a few of these safety measures. For more information on protecting your hearing or to schedule a hearing test, contact Audiology and Hearing Aid Services today.