Ears are delicate, and although we need to treat them with a lot of care, most of us subject our ears to regular abuse. We listen to loud music and insert ear buds regularly deep inside our ears. The ear is made up of some very sensitive membranes and for the most part, once these are damaged, they cannot be treated.
Hearing loss can affect you in more ways than one. You may not appreciate your keen sense of hearing now, but when you need to keep asking people to repeat what they have said, you will find yourself in a less-than-favourable social situation.
Teach your children to take care of their ears from the outset.
Do you possess a pair of earmuffs or earplugs? If not, pick up a pair for each member of your family, and use them often.
Commute
If you travel by local transport, you may not realize it but the noise outside is often deafening. Try and talk to someone when you're sitting in an autorickshaw. If you have to shout to be heard, the sound levels are too high. Wear earmuffs of earplugs when commuting, and make sure your children wear them as well to cut their exposure to loud noise.
Home
When using certain kitchen devices such as a blender that make a lot of noise, or if there is work going on in your home which calls for constant drilling and sawing, use ear protection.
Nightclubs
Noise levels in a nightclub are incredibly high, and regular exposure to such loud levels will definitely tell on your ears. If you're going to a restaurant or a bar, wear earplugs. Women can easily conceal these plugs by covering their ears with their hair.
Headphones
Is your child constantly listening to his Walkman or ipod? If you can hear the music although it's plugged into your child's ears, the volume is too high. In fact, listening to loud music through headphones is very, very bad for the ears and is certain to cause damage. In fact, listening through headphones for a prolonged period is also a bad idea, although the volume may not be very high. It is a good idea to remove the headphones every now and again and give your ears a rest. As far as possible, use large headphones that cover the ears, instead of smaller ones that you need to insert into your ears.
Ear buds
At least cigarette packs carry the warning that smoking is hazardous to health. Unfortunately, ear bud manucturers don't follow suit, although they should. Not every member of the public knows how bad inserting an ear bud into your ears can be. So no matter how tempting it is to dig that Q-tip into your ears, restrain. Constant digging and prodding into the canal can injure the sensitive membranes. In addition, every time you insert an ear bud into the ear, you push the wax even deeper into the canal. Nature has made ears to be self-cleaning organs. You don't need to dig out wax; your ears spew it out themselves. All you really should do is clean your ears and around with a damp cloth.
