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How to Protect Your Hearing During the Summer
The summer months means warm weather and more reasons to enjoy the great outdoors. Outdoor concerts, fairs, events and time by the pool make the summer season exciting – but with more outdoor activities come unexpected hazards for your hearing. This summer, protect your hearing without skipping out on fun in the sun! These clever hearing hacks will keep your hearing safe.
High Fidelity Ear Plugs
There’s no better time of year for outdoor music festivals and events than the breezy summer evenings. But with many music events come a lot of noise – and that noise can wreak havoc on your hearing if you aren’t careful. Most that head to a concert are unlikely to consider bringing along a pair of ear plugs, but certain types of ear plugs can help protect your hearing without ruining the quality of the music.
Those ear plugs are called high fidelity ear plugs, which are specifically designed to reduce harmful frequencies without diminishing other, less harmful frequencies. That means you get the full experience of the music without negatively impacting your hearing – a win-win for any music lover.
Depending on how much money you’re wiling to spend and what fit you prefer, there are plenty of brands that make great high fidelity ear plugs. Some favorites include Etymotic, Eargasm and Hearos.
Hearing-Friendly Headphones
Many of us will spend more time outside to enjoy the sun, perhaps even time at the beach. A lot of us will bring along a music player and a set of headphones with our favorite summer playlist – but depending on which headphones you bring along, you might be harming your hearing more than you’d expect.
Many headphones (especially in-ear headphones) can harm your hearing the more you wear them, especially if the volume is turned up high. Thankfully, lots of headphones are designed to protect your hearing without affecting the quality of the music. To protect your hearing, we recommend investing in a pair of noise isolating headphones (which means you have better quality sound without turning the volume to full blast) or open-ear headphones with ‘bone conduction’ technology.
Noise isolating headphones are great for those that want great sound but want to avoid turning the volume up to harmful levels. Better yet, certain headphones use technology called ‘bone conduction’, which transmits sound with vibrations sent through the bone behind the ear. That means great quality sound without any of the harmful frequencies!
Protecting Your Ears in the Water
Whether you’re enjoying time at the beach or beside the pool, summertime means more time in the water. For most of us, that also means increased risk of water in our ears – which can have a negative impact on our hearing health if we aren’t careful. That’s because water caught in the ear can cause ear infections – which if left untreated, can harm our hearing in the long term.
This condition is called “swimmer’s ear”, and its harder to prevent than you’d expect. In order to remove all excess water for our ears after swimming, It’s important to follow a few simple steps. First, tilt your head from side to side a handful of times after leaving the water, allowing water to drain from the ear canal. Afterwards, running a hair dryer on low about a foot from the ear can remove any water that might still be trapped.
Even with the very best protections against summertime hearing hazards, the best way to prevent hearing loss is to pay attention to changes in your hearing. If you are noticing changes in your hearing – like difficulty talking on the phone, understanding speech or ringing in your ears – talk to our team of hearing professionals about taking a hearing test.
A hearing test is an easy and quick way to diagnose hearing loss early and get the treatment you need. Contact us for a hearing test this summer and take control of your hearing health!
