2023-07-17 20:49:32
Ear pain and tinnitus are hearing problems that can occur for a variety of reasons. However, one of them is the use of headphones, which, although the use itself does not cause problems, there are certain precautions that people should have when using them. Check out tips below to use headphones in a healthy way and avoid future earaches or tinnitus.
4 tips to avoid ear pain, tinnitus and deafness
What to do to avoid earaches, tinnitus and deafness when using headphones. Source: unsplash (Photo by engin akyurt)
1 – Keep your headphones sanitized
Whether in-ear or over-ear headphones, it is possible to clean the parts that come into contact with the skin of our ears and ear canal. It’s important to do this routinely, as our sweat and body fluid production from the ear can cause infections and transmit disease. The reason for this is because our ear is an environment conducive to the development of microorganisms due to temperature, humidity and accumulation of organic matter.
Sweat can be avoided by using a towel to dry the skin and the ear pads of over-ear and on-ear headphones. Also, as we talked regarding in the article on how to solve the problem of humidity, you can use small silica bags in the headphone case (“box to store”). We also recommend that you wash the ear pads to sanitize them following one semester or one year of use, as we teach in our article.
Wax (or cerumen) has the function of protecting our ear canal once morest the entry of dust and infection by viruses, bacteria and fungi, through an acidic pH (between 4 and 5). However, excess wax in the ears or headphones can cause infections and transmit disease. In the case of in-ear headphones, ear tips (“tips”, “rubbers”) tend to accumulate wax both on their external and internal parts. In earbud-type headphones, microorganisms accumulate in the foam that surrounds the body of the phone. Check out our headphone sanitizing article to learn how to properly clean your headphones.
Related news
2 – Use the correct type of headphones for the environment where you are
Use the correct type of headphones according to the environment.
It is important to use the correct type of headphones for the environment. If the place is too noisy, the ideal is to opt for in-ears or closed-back headphones (closed). Closed-back headphones are those that have the “rear” (or “bottom”) of the house (body of the phone) closed, presenting a solid piece made of plastic, metal alloy or wood. In an over-ear or on-ear headphone the part where there is the whole piece is called ear cups (shells).
If you are in a quiet place, you can use earbuds or open-back headphones. Open-back headphones are those that have the “rear” (or “bottom”) of the house (earphone body) open, where there is usually a grid or friezes, with several grooves for better circulation of air. In an over-ear or on-ear headphone, the part where there is the grid is the opposite side where the ear pads (“cushions”) are inserted in the ear cups (“shells”).
The above solutions make use of the passive isolation feature, which does not require any extra mechanism to attenuate ambient noise, as the earphone material itself performs the isolation. But there are also headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC or Active Noise Cancelling), which use a system of microphones and speakers to cancel sound waves and generate silence, as we explain in depth in this article.
3 – Do not raise the volume excessively
Turning up the volume on your headphones more than necessary can permanently damage your hearing and degrade the sound quality of your music. If the user already uses the appropriate type of headphones and headphones for the location, there are some tips that are interesting to follow in order to obtain a good listening experience and preserve the hearing.
The first tip is to turn the volume up to the point where it’s enough for him to hear the sounds of the music. The louder the sound is, the lower your hearing ability.
Our ear has a sensitivity that varies between 0dB (silence) to approximately 120dB (extremely loud sound, which causes pain). When we put a volume that generates 80dB, there is a loss of sounds below 40dB in the music. When the sound is excessively loud, there is a greater presence of bass than treble, this happens because the high decibel levels cause the high frequencies (treble) to be masked, but not the bass (bass).
The higher the volume, the more the sound is masked and so we lose perception of lower sounds. Source: hyperphysics
Also, there is a relationship between how loud a song’s dB level is and how long you can listen to albums and playlists. What the WHO (World Health Organization) indicates is that the barrier of 80dB should never be exceeded in 40 hours a week, which is a safer margin for not having hearing loss. If a track has an average of 85dB, the person can listen for 8 hours straight at this level, but if we increase a single dB, that time drops by one hour.
Table taken from Annex No. 1 of NR15. Source: work.gov.br
4 – Avoid using in-ear headphones on the plane while it takes off or lands
Do not use in-ear headphones on the plane while it is taking off or landing. Source: Unsplash (Photo by Gary Lopater)
When the plane is taking off or landing at the airport, there is a large variation in pressure. As in-ear headphones seal the ear canal, the pressure inside the ear canal increases considerably when using an in-ear earpiece. For this reason, it is interesting not to place IEMs (in-ear monitors) when the plane takes off or lands.
1689651064
#Ear #pain #headphones #Tips #avoid #problem
