Slightly more than one parent in two has already consulted an ENT doctor at least once for their child, for various reasons affecting hearing in the more or less long term. Among our French neighbors, an Ifop survey demonstrates the concern of specialists regarding the hearing health of children. And for good reason, 1.3 million children under ten, or 14% of them, have already consulted an ENT specialist for tinnitus. For nearly 600,000 children, doctors have diagnosed severe moderate hearing loss.
Behind this observation, the daily use of headphones and earphones is singled out as a vector of hearing problems. “Since the end of the covid, our consultations have exploded, reveals Dr. Evelyne Jonniaux, allergist in Brussels and ENT specialist at the Children’s Hospital. In children, the most frequent consultation remains otitis, often following a cold. In addition, since the mask is no longer compulsory in certain places, we have seen an upsurge in allergies.
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Early aging of hearing
The researchers also want to point out that a child’s ear is more fragile than that of an adult until he is seven years old.
Concretely, there is an objective limit beyond which one runs the risk of damaging hearing. For the WHO, prolonged exposure to noise below 75 dB will not cause hearing damage (compared to 80 for adults) but if this limit is exceeded, there is a risk.
“Certain hearing impairments even have repercussions on the child’s daily life, she continues. We are talking regarding chronic fatigue, sleep disturbance, even nervousness or aggressiveness. Today, we also see more complications in children. They were not in contact with the various viruses during the pandemic and it is felt today. In some, there is pus which may collect behind the ear; we must follow their evolution closely because the next stage is meningitis.” According to data collected by free mutuals, which have 2.2 million members, 163 children are affected by hearing aid reimbursement in 2021.
Cécile Parietti-Winkler, president of the French college of ORL evokes, for her part, a time bomb. “Each time, repeated exposure to headphones and earphones will cause small cell damage to the ear sensor which will be minimized by a compensation phenomenon. The tests will not show any hearing problems in the child. . The damage, we see it followingwards.”