All ears for ear care

CHENNAI: Earphones have become a common accessory in everyone’s bag. Be it while working out, or on a grocery run, or just to avoid getting into conversations with people — we often tend to plug in and tune in to our favourite songs. But with the pandemic making employees work from home, children to attend online classes, and leaving the rest glued to a device for entertainment, there is an unprecedented dependency on earphones.

And this prolonged usage can affect your ear and hearing. In 2019, World Health Organization estimated that 1.1 billion young people globally are at risk of hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices. One in two young people listen to unsafe levels of sound through personal audio devices, such as smartphones, MP3 players and others.

Over time, this can lead to noise-induced hearing loss. But, it all depends on the duration and the type of sound you listen to, says Dr Aishwarya Narayanan, consultant audiologist and speech-language pathologist at SRM Hospital, Kattankulathur. “When you are working from home, you are mostly exposed to speech stimuli.

That will not affect your ear as much as music or other instrumental noise. Speech is an intermittent stimuli and not a continuous one, and has very minimal effects on hearing,” she says. But the main discomfort to the ear comes in the form of ear plugs. “When you use earplugs or headphones for a longer duration, you are occluding (keeping it closed) the ear for a long time,” she points out.

Cartilage compression
Dr PK Purushothaman, professor and head of the Department of ENT at SRM Hospital, Kattankulathur, shares, “The ear has two main parts — cartilage and bony part. When you are using an earplug, it usually compresses the cartilage. Long-term compression can cause aberration on the skin of the cartilage. So, it is important to note what kind of earplugs you use.” Medical professionals suggest using an earphone with silicon plugs. The plastic ones maybe hard and can cause more compression.

“Longterm use of plastic earphones will surely cause pain. The material should be comparatively leathery. Silicon plugs, like the ones used in hearing aids, are comfortable; they fit perfectly and change shape according to your ear canal,” they say. Comparatively, headphones are a safer option than earphones, says Dr Aishwarya. “When you use an earphone, the plug is put completely into the ear canal; so, there is no room for the sound to leak outside.

The entire sound energy is going into the ear. When you are wearing a headphone, some amount of energy gets dissipated outside as it is on top of the ear. Also, headphones have lesser impact on hearing than earphones. Then, again, duration, continuity and the kind of sound you listen to matters,” she stresses.

Threshold shift
Everybody has a normal level of hearing, which is 15 decibels (db). When you can listen to sound within 15 db, your hearing ability is normal. If you can only hear sounds above 15 db, it is considered minimal to profound hearing loss. When one is continuously exposed to higher decibels, there will be a threshold shift. “There are two types of threshold shifts — temporary and permanent.

The former happens if you continuously listen to noise (say eight hours, non-stop) between 80-85 db. One will, then, experience reduced hearing for a temporary period of time. The ear recovers on its own. A permanent threshold shift happens when you are constantly exposed to noise above 90 db and this leads to permanent hearing loss,” she says.

Simple practices
While simply wearing your earphones, without any noise coming through, does not cause any problem to the ear, it proves to be detrimental if you sleep with your earphones on. “Sleeping with earphones plugged into your ear is a wrong practice. It can cause skin aberration. You ear needs to breathe too; closing it may cause bacterial or fungal infection and lead to wax accumulation. It is important for the wax to come out. When the wax doesn’t come out, it affects your hearing,” she says.

To take care of ear, Dr Aishwarya suggests taking a break from earphones after every 30 minutes. “If you have to sit for long, opt for a headphone instead,” she says. It is also important to sanitise your earphones. “That does not mean slathering sanitiser on it. But leave it aerated. See to it that there is no wax accumulation, fungal development and it is not wet,” she suggests. If you find aberrations or constant wetness or wax leaking out of your ear, then you might have a severe problem. If you find any buzzing or ringing sound, get it checked immediately; it may be symptoms of hearing loss.