Have you ever misplaced your earbuds? (Or, perhaps, unintentionally left them in the pocket of a pullover that went through the washer and dryer?) Now it’s so boring going for a walk in the morning. You have a dull and dreary train ride to work. And your virtual meetings are suffering from poor audio quality.
Sometimes, you don’t recognize how valuable something is until you have to live without it (yes, we are not being discreet around here today).
So when you finally find or purchase a working set of earbuds, you’re thankful. Now your life is full of completely clear and vibrant audio, including music, podcasts, and audiobooks. Earbuds have a lot of uses other than listening to music and a large percentage of individuals use them.
But, unfortunately, earbuds can present some considerable risks to your ears because so many people are using them for so many listening activities. If you’re wearing these devices all day every day, you could be putting your hearing in jeopardy!
Earbuds are unique for numerous reasons
In previous years, you would need bulky, earmuff-style, headphones if you wanted a high-fidelity listening experience. That isn’t always the case anymore. Incredible sound quality can be created in a very small space with contemporary earbuds. They were popularized by smartphone makers, who provided a shiny new pair of earbuds with pretty much every smartphone sold throughout the 2010s (amusing enough, they’re rather rare these days when you purchase a new phone).
These little earbuds (sometimes they even have microphones) began showing up everywhere because they were so high-quality and accessible. Whether you’re out and about, or spending time at home, earbuds are one of the leading ways you’re talking on the phone, viewing your favorite show, or listening to tunes.
It’s that mixture of convenience, portability, and dependability that makes earbuds practical in a wide variety of contexts. Consequently, many consumers use them virtually all the time. And that’s become somewhat of a problem.
Vibrations are what it’s all about
Basically, phone calls, music, or podcasts are all the same. They’re simply air molecules being vibrated by waves of pressure. Your brain will then organize the vibrations into categories like “voice” or “music”.
In this activity, your brain is given a big assist from your inner ear. There are tiny hairs inside of your ear that oscillate when exposed to sound. These are not large vibrations, they’re tiny. These vibrations are distinguished by your inner ear. Your brain makes sense of these vibrations after they are transformed into electrical signals by a nerve in your ear.
This is important because it’s not music or drums that cause hearing loss, it’s volume. Which means the risk is equivalent whether you’re listening to Death Metal or an NPR podcast.
What are the risks of using earbuds?
Because of the appeal of earbuds, the risk of hearing damage due to loud noise is quite prevalent. According to one study, over 1 billion young individuals are at risk of developing hearing loss across the globe.
On an individual level, when you use earbuds at high volume, you increase your danger of:
- Hearing loss contributing to cognitive decline and social isolation.
- Not being capable of communicating with your friends and family without wearing a hearing aid.
- Sensorineural hearing loss leading to deafness.
- Continued exposure increasing the advancement of sensorineural hearing loss.
There may be a greater risk with earbuds than traditional headphones, according to some evidence. The reason may be that earbuds move sound right to the most sensitive parts of the ear. But the jury’s still out on this, and not all audiologists are on board.
Either way, volume is the principal factor, and both kinds of headphones can create hazardous levels of that.
It isn’t only volume, it’s duration, also
Perhaps you think there’s an easy solution: While I’m binging all 24 episodes of my favorite streaming program, I’ll just lower the volume. Well… that would help. But it may not be the total answer.
This is because how long you listen is as significant as how loud it is. Think about it like this: listening at top volume for five minutes will damage your ears. But listening at moderate volume for five hours could also damage your ears.
When you listen, here are a few ways to keep it safer:
- Make use of the 80/90 rule: Listen at 80% volume for no more than 90 minutes. (Want more minutes? Lower the volume.)
- Stop listening right away if you hear ringing in your ears or your ears start to hurt.
- Take regular breaks. It’s best to take regular and lengthy breaks.
- Make sure that your device has volume level warnings turned on. If your listening volume gets too high, a notification will alert you. Once you hear this alert, it’s your job to reduce the volume.
- Some smart devices allow you to decrease the max volume so you won’t even have to worry about it.
- As a general rule of thumb, only listen to your media at 40-50% volume.
Earbuds particularly, and headphones generally, can be pretty stressful for your ears. So give your ears a break. After all, sensorineural hearing loss doesn’t (usually) happen suddenly; it occurs gradually and over time. Which means, you might not even observe it happening, at least, not until it’s too late.
There’s no cure and no way to reverse sensorineural hearing loss
Noise-generated Hearing Loss (or NIHL) is typically irreversible. That’s because it’s sensorineural in nature (meaning, the cells in your ear become irreparably destroyed because of noise).
The damage builds up slowly over time, and it normally starts as very limited in scope. That can make NIHL hard to recognize. You might think your hearing is perfectly fine, all the while it is gradually getting worse and worse.
There is currently no cure or capability of reversing NIHL. However, there are treatments designed to offset and minimize some of the most significant impacts of sensorineural hearing loss (the most prevalent of such treatments is a hearing aid). But the general damage that’s being done, unfortunately, is permanent.
So the best plan is prevention
This is why prevention is emphasized by so many hearing specialists. Here are several ways to continue to listen to your earbuds while decreasing your risk of hearing loss with good prevention practices:
- Switch up the types of headphones you’re using. That is, don’t wear earbuds all day every day. Try using over-the-ear headphones too.
- Use volume-limiting apps on your phone and other devices.
- If you do need to go into an overly loud setting, use ear protection. Wear earplugs, for example.
- When you’re not using your earbuds, reduce the amount of noise damage your ears are subjected to. This could mean paying additional attention to the sound of your environment or avoiding overly loud situations.
- Make regular visits with us to get your hearing tested. We will help establish the general health of your hearing by having you screened.
- Some headphones and earbuds incorporate noise-canceling technology, try to utilize those. With this function, you will be capable of hearing your media more clearly without having to turn it up quite so loud.
You will be able to protect your sense of hearing for many years by taking steps to prevent hearing loss, especially NHIL. It can also help make treatments such as hearing aids more effective when you do ultimately require them.
So… are earbuds the enemy?
So does all this mean you should find your nearest pair of earbuds and chuck them in the trash? Not Exactly! Especially not if you have those Apple AirPods, those little gizmos are expensive!
But it does mean that, if you’re listening to earbuds regularly, you may want to think about changing your approach. You might not even realize that your hearing is being damaged by your earbuds. Your best defense, then, is being aware of the danger.
Step one is to control the volume and duration of your listening. The second step is to talk to us about the state of your hearing today.
If you think you may have damage due to overuse of earbuds, call us right away! We Can Help!
