Post on 07-Mar-2016
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Purtone Hearing Center (888) 539-5908
Hearing Loss Prevention Information
Everyone Can Use
1. We all know that a person’s hearing
gets worse with age. So, isn’t it a little
futile to try and prevent this from
happening?
It’s certainly true that some hearing losses are unavoidable, but
there’s a reasonable chance that a part of what we call
presbyacusis is the long-term accumulation of mitochondrial
injuries and reductions in the efficiency of mechanisms that
protect us from damaging exposures.
As you know, age-related hearing impairments can often be
distinguished from those from environmental and other causes by
the shape of the audiogram. Age effects tend to affect the highest
frequencies first and progress into lower frequencies. In contrast,
noise effects begin with a notched configuration. Hearing losses
due to excess noise show up in the first few years of continuing
exposure and approach the maximum effect after about 10 years.
People who start being exposed to noise in their 20s will start
showing substantial notched configurations in their 20s and 30s,
and these notches evolve into a bulge over time as age effects
erode hearing sensitivity at the highest test frequencies. In many
cases, this type of hearing loss can (and should) be prevented.
Purtone Hearing Center (888) 539-5908
2. Hey, be careful. Working with the hearing impaired is
my livelihood!
I know you’re only joking, but I’ll give you a serious response.
Only 15% of hearing-impaired adults between age 20 and 69
have ever tried a hearing aid, and this rate rises only to 25% for
those over age 70. There are plenty of people who need our help.
If fact, I suspect that your business might even increase if you do
some prevention work. If you build good relationships with people
in the prime age range for prevention (20 to 40 years), where do
you think those people will send their friends, family, and
themselves if they have problems?
Read the remainder of this interesting and informative article
written by Greg Flamme from Page Ten of The Hearing Journal at
http://www.audiologyonline.com/theHearingJournal/pdfs/HJ2009
_06_p10-13.pdf.