How To Care For Your Hearing Health When Traveling

You’ve probably heard a million and one recommendations about how to care for your hearing health when traveling. So many people take it for granted these days but during the holidays or a long road trip, you might find yourself missing your home base and getting treated to a constant stream of distractions. You may also be on your way to a conference or other event and need to make sure that you have decent hearing conditions so that you can properly attend to your responsibilities. 

Everyone knows that loud noises damage your ears, but little do most of us know that our own footsteps and even the conversations around us can cause permanent damage as well. It’s not just the traveling that can cause hearing problems; exposure to loud sounds over prolonged periods can also permanently damage eardrums. If you’re planning on visiting friends or family abroad this year, it’s important to understand what listening conditions are like where you’ll be going. Here are some helpful tips on how to care for your hearing health while traveling:

Keep An Eye Out For Impairment

When you’re abroad there are many noises and situations that can cause permanent hearing damage. Even simple things like traveling at faster than normal speed, using headphones with low-quality connections or standing up while walking can cause problems. Always keep an eye out for changes in your hearing. If something doesn’t sound right, don’t hesitate to get it corrected. It’s important to be aware of what to watch out for and what to correct. Here are some things to look out for: 

• Loud noise – Talking or laughing in a loud voice can damage your ears. 
• Reflexive noises – Your footfalls and other sounds will be reflected back into your ears and cause a continuous stream of loud noise. 
• Impaired hearing – Once you start to notice signs of hearing loss, it’s important to get it corrected as soon as possible. 
• Noise pollution – Deaf people also commonly experience hearing loss due to noise pollution. If you’re going to a place with a lot of noise, try to keep to the outskirts of town.

Let Someone Know About Your Relevant Conditions

It’s a good idea to let someone know about your hearing conditions. If you have a hearing device, plug it in when you’re not using it so that you don’t miss anything important. Let your doctor or hearing aid specialist know if you’re using an aid and you want to be on the safe side. 

If you’re not using an aid but are worried about having problems with hearing things at a certain volume, ask your doctor if you can go below the recommended volume. It’s a good idea to let others know about your health conditions so that you don’t miss out on things because someone didn’t know. It’s also a good idea to let others know if you’re a frequent traveler because you may find yourself on a same-distance flight with a lot of other people with conditions like yours.

Take Regular Care Of Your Ears

When you’re not at home, or the office, or the gym, or the beach, or whatever you do most often, you need to make sure that your ears are healthy. It’s not just the ears that are important; your teeth and bones are connected to your ears so they need to be healthy as well. If your ears are infected or if your head is hurting, you won’t be able to properly digest your food and you’ll waste away and become extremely unhappy. Your bones need to be healthy too; they can’t be making calcium when you don’t need it and you need bones to put pressure on your ears. It’s important to look after your ears regularly so that you don’t end up with deaf-ing damage.

Find The Help You Need

Finding the right help for your hearing health problem is hard; there are so many options. If you have a hearing loss, it’s important to get it explained to you by a professional because first impressions can matter a lot. It’s also important to find a good deal when it comes to hearing devices because they can be expensive. There are plenty of online databases and forums where you can search for hearing aid dealers and users that are also local to where you are; you may even want to post a question on the forums and see if anyone else is having the same issue as you are. If you’re dealing with a hearing problem due to exposure to loud noises or other things, you may want to speak to an occupational hearing loss lawyer.

Find The Right Noise Emissions

Once you’ve found the right professionals for your condition, it’s time to find out the right noises for them to monitor. You may want to monitor speech levels in a loud office or store, for example, but other than that, try to keep your listening environment as quiet as possible. This can further help to prevent hearing damage. 

Not everything needs to be above sound pressure level (SRL) 35 for you to hear it. When you’re in a crowded place, for example, the sounds around you can be just as loud as the SRL 35 threshold and louder. If you’re in a quieter place, you can still benefit from this; it’s just that you won’t be able to hear as well. Consider what your usual environment is like where you travel so that you can make an informed decision on what to put away from your new location.

Wear Comfortable Earphones

It’s important to find the right fit for your ears because they need to stay comfortable for hours at a time. You might be able to drive when your ears are hurting but once you’re outside, you want them to be as comfy as possible so that you can properly attend to your responsibilities. It’s not just the earbuds that need to be comfortable; the headband, loose hair, and whatever else is in your ears needs to be too. They should be able to stay in for several hours without feeling tight or uncomfortable.

Make Sure You Have Good Hearing Protection

When you’re using the hearing aids accessories attached in your hearing aids, you need to be careful not to put pressure on the wiring. This can cause permanent hearing damage and even death. The best way to protect yourself from this is to use a good over-the-ear hearing protector to cover your ears and keep them from being pinched or yanked on by straps. These also help to shield your ears from loud sounds so that you can focus on the sound being transmitted to your ears rather than being distracted by the environment. Make sure that the protector you choose is comfortable and does not cover your ears unless you are wearing a headset or earbuds.

Make Sure You’re Getting The Best Deals

The last thing you want to deal with when it comes to hearing protection is getting the right deals. There are a lot of places to buy cheap hearing protection but there are also plenty of places that sell high-quality devices. Make sure to shop around and get the best deal on your particular hearing device. It’s important to get a good deal on a hearing device because it’s the one thing you’ll be using every day for the next decade. If you go with the wrong brand or model, you could end up with a painful permanent hearing loss.