How Do Hearing Aids Protect Your Ears When You Play Sports?
Maybe because of the event needs or compulsions, we are daily putting ourselves in situations, which are guaranteed to cause damage to our hearing capacity. It has been noticed that the simple activities, which include playing your most favorite sport, could even result in hearing and ear injuries.
But by the luck of fortune, there are a few ways by which you can enjoy playing your favourite sports and maintain your hearing health at the same time. Rather playing sports is the favorite pastime and even hobby among the Melbourne citizens.
Water-Based Sports
You might like surfing, swimming, water-skiing, and the related water sports and for playing them, you have to take steps to prevent the waters from entering your ears and thereby stop any infections from occurring. When water gets trapped in the inner ears, then it is liable to cause otitis externa, which is commonly said to be a swimmer’s ear. In this situation, both the inner and outer ears are inflamed and in turn infected. Another adverse condition is the surfer’s ear – the situation where exposure to cold weather and wind leads to abnormal bone growth right in the ear canal. When you are frequently experiencing ear infections, then you are at a huge risk of hearing loss. Nevertheless, you can prevent ear infections by consulting an audiologist and follow the professional advice on using the hearing aids. As a safety device, while playing water sports, waterproof earplugs are the highly recommended hearing aids in Melbourne for the athletes. By wearing the waterproof earplugs, you can easily go on as they prevent water from entering your ears. Even the diving helmets and wetsuit hoods are excellent for protecting you against the surfer’s ears.
Contact Sports
Sports like rugby, tennis, and football involve a large amount of physical contact and are likely to pose a different threat. The worst of it is the tackling and the resulting blows received by the head can bring about damages to the aural nerves connecting the inner ears to the brain. If the blow is heavy, then the players have a hard time recovering from the shock waves injuring the inner ear’s auditory components. Along with tinnitus and hearing aids, when the players might have to undergo repeated head trauma leads to several conditions like vertigo, facial paralysis, cerebral contusion, concussion, meningitis, and hemorrhage. You cannot stop yourself from becoming a promising player. Hence, keep your ears and head protected while playing these sports.
Loud Sports
Your ears are certain for damage when they are exposed to sounds above 85 decibels, and in turn, lead you to noise-induced hearing loss. Many sporting activities easily exceed the 85 decibels threshold, like shooting that emits sound more than 150 decibels, race car driving emitting about 115 decibels for the driver, motorcycling which emits over 100 decibels. The ideal hearing aids for the shooters are the noise cancellation earmuffs, which muffle the gunshots to a much safer level. For the motorcyclists and drivers, the best hearing aids are the specifically designed earplugs to filter out the noise and they benefit from them since they fit in comfortably under their helmets.
Combat Sports
Athletes involved in physical combat sports like boxing, wrestling, martial arts, and jiu-jitsu are most likely to develop a “cauliflower ear” condition. Receiving repeated blows in the outer ears’ cartilage leads to internal bleeding which gives way to clot formation and blocks proper blood flow to ears and in turn causes death to some cartilages and them be folded on itself thereby making the ears look swollen permanently, and even causing hearing loss. Even in this case, the most essential elements are the proper safety gear to prevent cauliflower ears. These ear guards should be worn around the customized shields fitting over each ear and around heads.
You are sure to enjoy playing any sports mentioned above, and most likely to be worried regarding their effects in your ears and hearing health. Still, you need not give up on your passion. All that you need to do is take proper precautions and protective gear to carry on playing and hearing.