Hearing loss

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Just read an interesting article in Scientific American. We've had debates about hearing protection. Most folks are clued in on the need but we get someone who says they don't believe it or they shot a gun with no protection and are fine.

So here's a summary:

1. There is variability in response so someone saying that they weren't affected, doesn't mean much to most people. Most get damaged.

2. The damage is not just to the hair cells in the cochlea. The sound can also damage the nerve cells that receive information from the cochlea. This is very important because:

a. Damaging hair cells may show up on the standard audiograms and you will see increased thresholds in various frequency domains

b. Damaging the later nerve cells may not show up in the audiogram but this sort of damage will interfere with the interpretation of complex sounds. So you test OK with the audiogram but start not to be able to process complex sounds as in speech. Thus you get folks who say they can hear the sounds but, for example, can't understand what someone is saying.

The basic frequency perception may be ok but the next set of cells is damaged and you have problems with interpretation.

Interesting info, ear protection is very important. Gun shots might be at 130 to 140 dB. However, a couple of hours at 90 dB (with power gadgets) can do it.

 

[cosh]

Thanks for sharing that Glenn. It makes sense. I have trouble interpreting speech in complex noise situations. I can still hear high frequencies but some damage due to extended noise exposure, operating farm equipment. The audio gram is not too bad when it is a single tone. I have always had ear protection when hunting, shooting.

 

[jmr40]

I look at shooting and hearing loss as a long journey. Every shot you are exposed to takes you one step closer to total hearing loss. Depending on the exact conditions such as how loud the individual gun is and how close to your ears matters. Some situations may mean tiny baby steps, others are more like a sprint getting you closer to hearing loss faster.

At first you the damage is so slight that you don't notice, but one day you wake up and can notice a difference. In rare situations a single shot can cause very noticeable hearing loss.

Early in my shooting experiences I wore no protection. As a job requirement I was required to get a yearly physical including a hearing test. In my early 30's they pointed out that I couldn't hear certain tones in my left ear. Right ear was perfect. Since those tones were not "normal" in every day life, and I could hear them in my right ear, I never noticed.

I figured I was on borrowed time and started wearing ear protection. In fact I double up now. I probably was lucky to have no more damage than I did. But I don't recommend others take the risk I did.

 

[kilimanjaro]

Hearing damage is cumulative, you don't recover 100% after the first exposure, nor the next.

Plugs and muffs are best.

 

[djont57]

I now wear hearing aids after shooting during my teens & early twenties with out hearing protection. Lots of shotgun hunting & skeet. Back in the early 70's I don't remember anyone wearing "ears". Wished I knew then what I know now.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Thanks for sharing that Glenn. It makes sense. I have trouble interpreting speech in complex noise situations.

So do I. If I have lunch with my pastor at a restaurant, I almost always have to lean across the table and cup my ear to understand what he says. And there's one guy at work whom I can't understand 98% of the time. The VA says I have 10% hearing loss -- they awarded me a 10% disability and they provide me with free hearing aids.

The funny thing is that I can't wear the hearing aids. They make everything so loud it's painful. And if I step outside the front door at night, I can hear crickets chirping.

 

[zukiphile]

If I have lunch with my pastor at a restaurant, I almost always have to lean across the table and cup my ear to understand what he says. And there's one guy at work whom I can't understand 98% of the time. The VA says I have 10% hearing loss -- they awarded me a 10% disability and they provide me with free hearing aids.

Thanks for that. I thought I might be slightly nuts.

15 years ago I saw an audiologist because I was having problems understanding the girls at work. Docs always say "So what's the problem? hahahaha!", but asking people to speak up gets old.

The doc found no hearing loss, but I also find loud, high pitched noises (like elevator bells) painful. Cell phones (a bit of a misnomer since it is really a voice activated radio) make things more difficult than they should be.

I know that some of the problem is my hearing, but many people, especially younger ones, have poor elocution. Combine that with a cell phone, and I sometimes require people to call back on a land line.

The restaurant thing of the last couple of decades is a problem too. They are designed to convey a lot of background noise, the intent being that the atmosphere is lively. It's the very opposite of the nice restaurant you went to with your parents as a child -- carpet, tablecloths and hushed tones.

 

[Don P]

Well in my early years never gave a thought about ear protection while shooting. Work environment hobby activities have left me with one ear missing 3 out of ten words and the other ear missing 4 out of ten words. With back ground noise it's even worse. Many a TV show and conversation in a social setting have me at a loss and much is missed and not heard. Sucks

 

[osbornk]

I have trouble interpreting speech in complex noise situations. I can still hear high frequencies but some damage due to extended noise exposure, operating farm equipment.

Hearing loss is more than just not hearing sounds. I took both my mother-in-law and aunt in for their hearing test. One test is to repeat the words spoken. The tester would say one word and the tested would repeat back a completely different word. My mother-in-law has severe hearing loss (at 90) and can't hear anything without a hearing air. She only understands 70% of the words she hears. She hears fine with a hearing air but the words she hears are different than the words spoken. Raising your voice doesn't help and people have difficulty understanding it.

I wear hearing aids because of the air hammers and chisels I was exposed for years working in a body shop.

 

[cosh]

+1 - I think that nails it!! My relatives working those environments for all the years had that same issue. The more we repeated the words louder it only got worse. They would turn the hearing aids down - LOL!! Funny how the brain will fill in missing information often making the words different.

 

[Dragline45]

All it took was a single .357 round without hearing protection and I now have tinnitus (permanent ringing) in my left ear and high frequency hearing loss. My hearing for the most part is fine, but I have a tough time hearing conversation in noisy situations like loud bars that play music too loud. If I shake a loaded cartridge in my good ear I can hear the powder sifting around, when I put it up to my left ear which is my bad ear, I can barely hear a thing.

Thankfully, with advancements in stem cell's they will eventually be able to repair the hair cells that were damaged or killed from the noise exposure, though that could be a decade or more away.

 

[FITASC]

And if I step outside the front door at night, I can hear crickets chirping.

I have that ALL the time - and I don't have hearing aids - called tinnitus and not just from shooting.. Many folks do not consider the ramifications of using power tools such as lawn mowers, leaf blowers, etc. without hearing protection. Loud and long exposure is also as dangerous to hearing loss as short loud incidents like gunshots. Remember to protect around your ears as well.

 

[Dragline45]

I have that ALL the time - and I don't have hearing aids

Yup same here, took me a good 3 or 4 years to get used to it to the point that I don't notice it anymore, that first year or two it literally drove me crazy.

 

[TailGator]

I have pretty significant hearing loss at age 58, and have worn hearing aids for around a decade. They help, but they do not produce fully normal hearing.

I experience the problem of understanding speech. I am an amateur musician, and a lot of folks are surprised to hear me say that my pitch perception is at least as accurate as it was in my youth. I can tune instruments, hear chords, and work with choirs with a great deal of accuracy. It is the discernment of speech that gives me problems. Television and movies are the worst, because like a lot of people with compromised hearing I watch people's mouths and allow a half-baked version of lip reading help my understanding; a lot of cinematic dialogue takes place without a face shot, however.

My audiologist mentioned that consonants are the problem for a lot of people, because they are short and high-pitched. Vowels are sustained, so there is more time to process them. They are also the notes that are held in vocal music.

My hearing loss is thought to be caused by a combination of genetics and exposure to loud noises. In my youth, hearing protection was not used for shooting, or for power tools used in wood shops or in lawn care. I did all of those, and although I do all I can to protect my remaining hearing, I regret that I did so little in my youth to protect myself, and I cringe when I read posts from people who are callous about the potential for damage.

 

[Paul B.]

I shot my first high power rifle at age 11. That was 66 years ago. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since I shot that grown up's 30-30. By age 16 I had several rifles, a .22, 30-30 and a 30-06 and also a .38 Spl. revolver. I hand loaded for all the centerfire guns. When I finally got a car, I spent literally every week end at the range. Back then hearing protection was a couple of cotton balls to stick in your ears. They muffled the sound but did not prevent the damage. Neither did the filters off cigarettes.
Fast forward to 1973 and I'd bought a Remington 660 in .308 to replace the heavy 30-06 I had at the time. Man did that gun kick. I restocked it and although the fit was almost perfect it still kicked the slats out from under me. I was about ready to sell that gun and go back to that 10 pound 06. My birthday came up and the kids bought a pair of those Mickey mouse type hearing protectors. Didn't really care for them as I felt they were uncomfortable. Tried them the next time out and want? I was shooting that lightweight .308 and the kick seemed to now be less that half. It was the report from that rifle's short barrel that was not only loud but had a vicious crack. That was gone. The last few hunts I've done, I've worn one of the better brands of muffs with electronic hearing. I can hear my hunting buds talk/whispers and if I get a shot I don't worry about the noise.
I had my hearing tested at the VA and I've lost 90 percent in the high frequency range in both ears. I was suppose to get free hearing aids almost a year ago, was told of some delay and still no aids. That and a couple of other problems with them have just about made me tell them to just go to hell. Yeah, my hearing problem is mostly my fault mainly through ignorance. Some was job related back in the late 50's from using air hammers on the job.
All I can say is if you still have good hearing, protect it the best you can. The crickets never go away.
Paul B.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

And if I step outside the front door at night, I can hear crickets chirping.

I have that ALL the time - and I don't have hearing aids - called tinnitus and not just from shooting.

I think you misunderstood. I also have tinnitus, but when I wrote that I can hear crickets chirping, I meant that I can hear crickets chirping (nature sounds) -- without the hearing aids.

My hearing loss (like most) is mostly in a certain frequency range, and I guess if a person's voice happens to fall into that range, that's the person I'll have problems hearing. And, as others have expressed, restaurants today don't help. Lots of hard surfaces that reflect sound, and they ALL play the "background" music too loud. The music is supposed to be soft, almost subliminal, to create a subtle ambiance. It's NOT supposed to make conversation impossible. I often start a session is a restaurant by asking that the "background" music be turned down to background levels.

 

[FITASC]

More likely YOU missed my sarcasm, I CAN'T hear the nature sounds because the tinnitus version of ear crickets takes over - very similar to a constant hissing or snare drum sound.......sometimes the sound lessens so the TV volume can be lowered to normal; otherwise, the volume goes up.......

 

[Catfish King]

Only time I do not wear hearing protection is when I am hunting with a long gun. I always wear protection at the range. Worked construction for over 20 years and began using hearing protection my first week and never stopped. Other things on me seem to going left and right, LOL, but at least I can hear.

 

[Brotherbadger]

Thanks for the info! Always great to learn a little more.

 

[FITASC]

Besides the plugs, you will want muffs top protect around your outer ear - sounds vibrations can get transmitted to your middle and inner ear areas via the mastoid bone and that can lead to serious damage as well, so if possible, double up with plugs and muffs.