Too many rings spoil your hearing

BENGALURU: Recently, a working professional in his late 20s complained to doctors of a constant ringing noise in his ears. He had trouble hearing his colleagues talk during meetings. He also had trouble hearing women with high pitched voices. On further tests, audiologists found that he was suffering from high-frequency hearing loss.

“This young man had shifted recently to Bengaluru and would go clubbing every weekend. He was regularly being exposed to loud sounds at pubs and bars. He did not realise that his hearing was deteriorating slowly over time until it came to a point that he experienced ringing in his ears,” said Krishnakumar G, Audiologist, CEO and co-founder at HearFon Hearing and Speech Clinic.
The ringing noise is referred to as Tinnitus and indicates hearing loss that may be irreversible.

“For serious cases such as this, we advised him to stop frequenting places with loud music and put him on medication. If the condition does not improve, he will have to start wearing hearing aids,” Krishnakumar explained, adding that he has observed a 10 per cent increase of such cases in the last one year in the 20 to 35 age group.

Dr. Jayabharathi Thangaraj, ENT consultant at Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital finds executives attending so caught up with work calls that they attend phone calls even during the consultation at the hospital.

“They have two phones with dual sims, to speak with international clients, local clients, family and friends. They interrupt the check-up itself to take calls and then complain of irritation. The same music that once sounded pleasurable to them, now irritates their ears. Overtime, this turns into issues hearing people, which turns into Tinnitus and finally permanent loss of hearing. This is among the age group of 20 to 30,” said Dr Thangaraj.

She also refers to the age group of 14 to 20-year-olds who are constantly plugged in with earphones, listening to music, watching videos, etc.

“When the mother distracts a child with YouTube videos in order to feed him or her, the child again gets exposed to loud music or noise on a daily basis. People neglect the basic symptoms and come to us only when the ringing in the ears start. I have had four patients neglect the ringing too. When they went scuba diving, then only did they realise that they experienced the noise underwater too,” she added.