The ear is one of the organs that we use to perceive the world, and most people only notice its presence when they look in the mirror. Suddenly one day we can’t hear anymore and realize that our ears need to be taken care of too.
On the occasion of the 9th Ear Care Day, we visited a number of ENT experts and asked them to tell us what is hurting our ears.
Black Hand One: Noise
Damage parts: middle and inner ear
The pathway of sound transmission is like this: sound signals pass through the external ear canal – the tympanic membrane vibrates – the hearing bone (hammer bone, stirrup bone, anvil bone) – the fluid in the inner ear vibrates –Electric impulses occur in the cochlear hair cells –Auditory nerve –Central sound receptors in the brain, and so we hear sound. Something goes wrong with any part of this chain and we may not hear sound. However, the factors that affect hearing are more common in the middle and inner ear.
While industrial noise used to be the main factor affecting hearing, the culprit of hearing damage has now become music, thanks to the invention of the Walkman. Prolonged, loud music damages our hearing by damaging the hair cells of the inner ear, auditory nerve fibers, auditory neurons, and microvascular spasms in the inner ear.
Sound damage to the hearing is mainly divided into two categories: one is a sudden loud sound, such as firecrackers; the other is chronic noise, long hours of work in high noise, hearing unknowingly harmed.
In a high-noise environment, the auditory cells will be strained, if only for a short time, strained cells can recover, calculated at 85 decibels, the daily limit is 8 hours, more than the limit, the auditory cells do not have enough time to recover, the accumulation of months will be damaged.
If you listen to the sound of 85 decibels, up to 8 hours, the sound every 3 decibels, the time limit in multiples of decreasing, that is, 88 decibels time limit is 4 hours, 91 decibels for 2 hours, and so on.
If you are listening to music in a subway car with background noise as high as 85 to 100 decibels, to cover the background sound, the volume of the Walkman is often higher than 100 decibels. The recommended safety code for using a Walkman is: 60% for 60 minutes, which means that the volume is set at 60% of the maximum volume for no more than 60 minutes a day.
Black hand two: pressure
Damage site: inner ear
Stress is likely to lead to sudden deafness, a kind of neurological deafness, mostly because suddenly one side of the ear can not hear, may be accompanied by tinnitus, ear stuffiness and other feelings.
Pathogenesis: Stress, fatigue, emotional excitement, viral infection and other factors lead to increased adrenaline secretion in the muscles, spasm and contraction of the small arteries in the inner ear microcirculation, resulting in ischemia and hypoxia in the inner ear, causing inner ear lesions, resulting in damage to the sound-sensing part of the inner ear and causing hearing loss.
Prevention and treatment focus: Once you find out that you can’t hear your ears, you should get treatment as soon as possible. Generally, the best treatment effect is on the day of onset, and if you start treatment within a week, about 80% of patients can be cured or partially recovered, and the longer the time after onset, the worse the treatment effect.
Black hand three: drugs
Damage site: inner ear, drugs damage the fine structure of the inner ear
There are about 90 clinical types of drugs with ototoxic effects. Although doctors and parents have paid attention to this problem over the years, drug-related deafness remains the first common cause of acquired deafness, with about 30,000 people experiencing hearing loss each year due to improper drug use, mostly in children, but also in adults. The most common are aminoglycoside antibiotics, others are antineoplastic drugs, diuretics, and anti-inflammatory painkillers.
Black Hand IV: Age
Damage sites: middle ear, inner ear, mainly inner ear lesions
When people reach old age, the function of all organs of the muscles will decline, and so will the auditory organs, which will gradually age with the growth of age. At the age of 60, about 30% of people will have difficulty hearing high-frequency acoustic sounds, and at the age of 80, 50-70% of the elderly have high-frequency hearing loss. This, coupled with the fact that the elderly are prone to arteriosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and other diseases, indirectly leads to lesions in the inner ear and ear nerve. We can postpone the time of hearing loss by treating these diseases and reduce the factors that may accelerate hearing loss such as noise.
Black Hand 5: Diseases
Damage site: middle ear, inner ear
Otitis media, auditory neuroma, and otosclerosis are all diseases that may directly cause hearing loss. By treating them early, most people can avoid deafness.
Black Hand 6: Trauma
Damage site: middle ear
We have heard of cases where someone slapped a child down and deafened him. Why is this? The ear canal is very thin, and the high air pressure driven by the action of slapping directly on the eardrum vibrates the eardrum, which may damage the eardrum and the auditory chain, causing deafness.
Black Hand 7: Heredity
Damage site: Hearing nerve
Fifty percent of deafness is inherited and has a genetic basis. Some children are born able to hear and later lose their hearing.
Current cochlear implant technology can change outside sounds into electronic sound signals that act directly on the auditory nerve, and through training can speak and live like normal children.
7 conditions that alert you
Hearing loss may occur.
1, often “interrupt” when talking to people, answer questions that are not asked;
2, often talk to people with a sideways face;
3, pay close attention to the other side of the mouth when talking;
4.Watching TV with the sound on very loud, you already feel very noisy, he felt just right;
5.Speaking in a loud voice;
6, often ask people to repeat what they say;
7.Require others to stand on his side to talk. The hearing of the elderly may have declined when the above situations occur. Paying attention to these signals and early intervention can lead to a better quality of life for the elderly.
Criteria for noise decibels
10~20 decibels are barely perceptible.
20~40 decibels is equivalent to soft talking.
40~60 decibels is equivalent to indoor conversation.
60~70 decibels are harmful to nerves.
70~90 decibels is very noisy. Long-term study and life in this environment will gradually damage the human nerve cells.
90~100 decibels will make the hearing damaged.
100~120 decibels make people unbearable and can temporarily cause deafness in a few minutes.
Generally, when the sound is around 30 decibels, it will not affect the normal life and rest. And when it reaches 50 decibels or more, people have a greater feeling and it is difficult to sleep.