Don't wear ultra powered hearing aids too often!!!

[posts from hell]

My audiologist said that he had patients who are in band, as well as drumline or any other band activity, and has worn hearing aids, and it shows that powerful hearing aids have also not helped with the loudness aka the point to my situation.

Winter Indoor Drumline is intensively loud. I mean you got the bass drums, the snare drums, the tenors, cymbal players, the vibraphones, marimbas, the guitars, synth, drumset and rack. We're playing indoors.



My audi thought that if i had musician earplugs, it would help me due to the intense loudness in the room for only my right ear. My parents bought me this earplugs: Etymotic Research, Inc. - ETY-Plugs ER20 High Fidelity Earplugs



These hearing aids are pretty powerful. I had to literally take them out of my ear because it was to a point where i couldn't take the pain in my ear anymore. And I couldn't hear very well afterwords. I mean, When i wanted to take my HA off, my section leader got mad at me because i had them off and he demanded me that i put them back on so i can hear the instructions and stuff. But in my opinion he can sign to me, he has been taking ASL classes at the high school and a bunch of my other friends in the group with me knows ASL because i've been teaching them sign so they can help me out a little bit. But oh well, not the point here. But what i'm trying to say is, if you're not a musician, its probably not that much of a big deal to you, but if you are, it probably is. I mean I'm already deaf, and i lost more of my hearing in my right ear.

you're right. indoor drumming = LOUD!

BTW: Many music teachers suffer hearing loss. I have a few from the public schools at my happy hour.

 

[LoveBlue]

Probably, because at the time my right ear was hurting pretty bad due to the noise because of the Nadia and i had to constantly take it off, and thats when i went to a hearing test and my hearing levels were pretty bad. And my only option was to get another CI.

Sounds like a bad HA (malfunctioning) and/or a bad audi (not fitting it appropriately and/or not sending them back because of the malfunction). S/he should have done something when you complaigned about the pain.

My left HA started cutting off recently because I apparently had reached the max threshod that my audi had set (and I had turned up the vol - that ear is pretty deaf already). She upped the threshold to meet my needs.

 

[ecp]

Interesting theory, funny thing is audiologists tell you its the opposite... I was told by not forcing my daughter to wear hers it would cause her hearing to get worse yet it didn't now that she is wearing them again they say her hearing nerve is dying, maybe your on to something

Both your daughter's audiologist and people who warn of excessive noise damage are correct.
•if an ear does not receive input the auditory cortex essentially forgets how to process sound. So it is true that ears, especially young ears, need input for the auditory cortex to develop.
•excessively loud sounds cause damage to hair cells. The table on this page Noise Exposure - Permissible Level and Duration shows acceptable noise exposure limits for people with normal hearing to prevent noise induced hearing loss
For people with stable hearing loss, your hair cells that are still functioning are at risk for prolonged exposure to loud noises. I would expect that you would see a 'notch' in your audiogram around 4000hz after a few decades of wearing hearing aids with outputs that exceed 80db.

In my personal experience I notice that after wearing my UP BTEs all day in a busy ER, I am unable to hear sounds I can usually hear without my hearing aids.
Hair cells do go into shock for a period of time after loud sounds. This is why hearing people complain that they can't understand anything after a really loud movie or concert.

 

[AJWSmith]

Like most of you on this thread, I have pondered this question. According to The Children's Hearing Institute these are "Unsafe Levels of Exposure"

110 decibels or louder : regular exposure of more than one minute risks permanent hearing loss.
100 decibels: No more than 15 minutes of unprotected exposure is recommended.
85 decibels: Prolonged exposure to any noise above 85 decibels can cause gradual hearing loss.​

The Children´s Hearing Institute -- Hearing Health/Preserving Hearing

With my level of HL (hearing loss) sound needs to amplified well into the danger zone mentioned above. If we are warned that we damage our hearing by listening to MP3 players too loudly, then the same logic must apply to HAs. And I can never get a straight answer from an audiologist or hearing aid website.

Consistent exposure to moderate-level loud sounds wears out the hair cells in the inner ear and weakens their ability to recover. Over time as these cells die permanent hearing loss occurs.

HAs are simulating the cochlear in exactly the same way as MP3 players so will be "wearing out" the hair cells in exactly the same way. My personal guess as to why audiologists aren't that bothered is that dB is a logarithmic scale* then damage caused to someone who is already severely deaf is less noticeable than to someone who has yet to lose their hearing, or only has mild HL.

(*Sound is measured using a logarithmic scale so 20dB is not twice as loud as 10dB but actually 100 times louder. So it's 11dB that is as twice as loud as 10dB. If physical deterioration follows a linear path, then the time taken to lose another decibel of hearing takes increasingly longer and longer. If it takes 1 year to go from 25dB HL to 35dB, then it'll take 10 yrs to go to 45dB, and 100 years to get to 55dB HL)

 

[Babyblue]

I agree, and had an audiologist tell me that hearing aids can actually damage my hearing more. My type of hearing loss is bilateral nerve damage and lack of hairs in the cochlea. Since their is nothing wrong with my ear drums and the remainder hairs in my ears the amplification can cause damage to my eardrum and the rest of the hairs in my cochlea.

Why I wear them?? Because they do help me hear meanwhile, and I will wear them for as long as they help me.