Watching your favorite sports team on television is fun, but there’s a special energy that comes with seeing the Creighton Bluejays play in person at the CHI Health Center Omaha. While the roar of the crowd and the music playing adds an extra level of excitement to sporting events, it also can pose a threat to your hearing health.
Thankfully, there are steps you can take to protect your hearing while at the game.
How Is Loud Too Loud?
While you probably know that extremely loud noises can increase your risk of hearing loss, you might be surprised at what point damage to your ears can start to occur. Any prolonged exposure to noises over 85 dB can harm your hearing. For reference, this is about the average volume of city traffic, lawnmowers and leaf blowers. Sporting events, especially larger ones, can reach levels above 100 dB.
Research on Sporting Events and Hearing Loss
To see what effect attending sporting events has on attendees’ hearing, researchers tested the noise levels at ten intercollegiate basketball games as well as measured the hearing of attendees both before and shortly after the game.
They found that six of the ten basketball games exceeded acceptable noise intensity levels and that participants experienced a temporary change in their hearing thresholds after the game.
While in this particular experience, hearing changes were permanent, regular exposure to loud noise can lead to permanent hearing loss.
Hearing Protection Tips
To keep your hearing and your family’s hearing safe while attending sporting events, follow these suggestions:
- Wear hearing protection. Earplugs, earmuffs, custom earmolds and even noise-canceling headphones can all help bring the decibels down to a safe volume while still allowing you to enjoy the game. You can find earplugs easily at most drugstores or online, or go to a hearing specialist for more custom protection. If you use noise-canceling headphones, you can listen to the radio broadcast of the game while watching the action live, enhancing your experience.
- Take breaks. While we know you don’t want to miss any of the action, try to schedule breaks around natural lulls in the game when you can get away from the noise and move to a quieter location. If you start experiencing ear pain, tinnitus or other troubling symptoms, see if you can move to a quieter spot to watch the rest of the game.
- Limit exposure to loud sounds. While there are ways to protect your ears at loud events, it’s also a good idea to stagger your exposure to them and give your ears a chance to rest. Be mindful of exposure during other aspects of your life, too, whether at work, attending a concert or evening listening to music on your headphones.
To learn more about how to keep your ears safe, call the experts at Ear Specialists of Omaha & Bellevue today.