What to Know About Earbuds and Hearing Loss

Many of us use both earbuds and traditional headphones frequently-sometimes every day.

This may not be the best decision for the health of our hearing, however. We all will likely experience some degree of hearing loss as we age, but those declines may be increased by our use of headphones and even more so earbuds.

There are certain ways you can still enjoy listening to music, movies, and shows on your personal device without the fear of hearing loss. One way is with the use of bone conduction technology.

Bone conduction headphones are actually worn behind the ears, and they conduct sound through your skull instead of into your ear canal. That avoids high-decibel sound's direction toward your eardrum, and some health professionals say these can help prevent certain types of hearing loss.

These types of headphones are also worn by people who already have some form of hearing impairment in many cases.

Beyond the use of bone conduction headphones, what else should you know about earbuds, headphones, and hearing loss?

Exposure to Loud Sounds and Hearing Loss

Exposure to loud sounds is the number one cause of hearing loss. Loss sounds are typically classified as those that are at or above 85 decibels. When you are listening to loud sounds, it can damage your inner ear cells.

Noise-induced hearing loss or at least the extent of it is dependent on how long you're exposed to loud sounds, and for how often. How loud the exposure is is also relevant.

When sounds, even for short periods, are very loud, or there are loud and long-lasting sounds, it can cause damage to the most sensitive parts of the ear.

When you suffer from this kind of hearing loss, there isn't a way to reverse the damage that occurs.

A 2011 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found the use of earbuds and headphones has led to significant increases in the prevalence of hearing loss in adolescents and young adults, so the same likely holds true for older adults.

There are certain factors that can let you know a noise might be loud enough to damage your hearing.

If you have to raise your voice to talk to other people, the sounds around you could be loud enough to be damaging. If a sound hurts your ears or you experience a sound and then have ringing in your ears or muffled hearing, it could cause hearing damage.

How Do Loud Noises Damage Hearing?

So how, specifically, do loud noises cause hearing damage?

With earbuds and headphones, the primary risk factor is volume. These devices are producing loud sounds very close to the eardrum.

Sound waves cause our eardrums to vibrate, and that vibration goes through the inner ear via a lot of small bones. It then reaches the cochlea, which is a fluid-filled area of your ear with thousands of small hairs. When vibrations reach the cochlea, the fluid inside it vibrates, and the hairs move.

The louder the sound, the stronger the vibrations, and eventually, with ongoing exposure to loud noises, the hair cells lose their vibration sensitivity.

How to Avoid Earbud and Headphone Damage

There are ways to keep using earbuds and headphones but avoid damage, or at least reduce the risk.

The most important thing you can do is lower the volume. Again, the louder you're listening to things on earbuds, the more likely you are to have hearing damage, and the more severe it's likely to be. Turning down the volume can have a significant and positive effect.

You should also consider using noise-canceling headphones if possible, perhaps rather than earbuds if you use earbuds frequently.

Noise-canceling headphones help block out the sound around you, and this, in turn, can allow you to hear without having to turn the volume up so loudly on your music or whatever you might be listening to.

Many audiologists also recommend the use of over-the-ear headphones instead of earbuds. With over-the-ear headphones, you are putting more distance between your eardrums and the speakers, which can lower the likelihood or severity of hearing loss.

There's a 60-60 rule you should follow too. This means that you don't listen to anything at louder than 60% of max volume for longer than 60 minutes at a time.

Finally, if you are worried about hearing loss related to earbud use or any other reason, get it tested. The earlier your hearing loss is identified, the sooner you can do something about it.