Report from this newspaper (Reporter Sun Leqi) “Children with hearing loss caused by unscientific use of earphones on the subway are very common in clinical practice.” March 3 is National Hearing Day, Deputy Director of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Beijing Children’s Hospital Liu Haihong reminds: Using headphones in a high-noise background can easily cause imperceptible hearing loss.
Whether children, teenagers or adults, when using headphones, the volume should not exceed 60 decibels, and the continuous use time should not exceed 1 hour.
"When I do English listening tests recently, I always have difficulty hearing clearly." Xiaohang, a first-year high school boy who participated in the Children's Hospital's free hearing clinic, said that recently, he often cannot hear clearly in English classes and his grades have dropped significantly.
But when talking to people around me, I feel like it’s okay.
After a hearing test, it was found that Xiaohang's mid- and low-frequency hearing was completely normal, but his high-frequency hearing from 3,000 Hz to 6,000 Hz had declined significantly.
"When did this state of affairs start?" "Has it become more and more serious recently?" Upon questioning, Liu Haihong learned that Xiaohang had to take the subway for 40 minutes one way to and from school every day since she was in high school.
On the subway, he would wear headphones and listen to music.
Since the subway is an environment with high-intensity background noise, this led him to turn up the music in his headphones very loudly.
Long-term exposure to high-noise environments can cause the hair cells that process sound information to fall off and die, leading to hearing loss.
This kind of hearing loss often has the characteristics of insidious onset and is easily ignored.
"In the beginning, it may just be that some lighter consonants in English are missed, which causes learning obstacles to a certain extent. If its development is not controlled in time, the hearing loss may become more and more serious, and it may also cause social barriers." Liu Haihong Fortunately, Xiaohang sought medical treatment in time. The current hearing loss is still temporary. It is recommended to take adequate rest and stay away from noise sources.
If you do not change your listening habits and the hearing loss worsens or develops from high frequencies to mid-low frequencies, it may cause permanent hearing loss. In severe cases, you may even need to use hearing aids to assist hearing.
Xiaohang's situation is not an isolated case. In recent years, children with hearing loss caused by unscientific use of headphones are very common in Liu Haihong's clinic.
"To protect hearing, prevention is more important than treatment." She suggested that headphones should be used for a short time and with low intensity.
When playing, the maximum volume should not exceed 60 decibels; the continuous wearing time should be within half an hour, and the longest should not exceed 1 hour.