As I have tinnitus and noise induced hearing loss, can natural sounds make my hearing worse?

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

It is a combination of intensity and duration that causes acoustic trauma or noise-induced hearing loss. If you subject your ears to high-intensity sounds for long durations, then, you are hurting them more. Ideally, you should not submit the ears to more than 90 dB for eight hours continuously. With every 5 dB increase in intensity, the time gets halved. In the case of impulse noises, you should limit the number of times you expose yourself to such sounds like blasts, fireworks, and thuds. You need not wear plugs everywhere you go out or talk to someone. Just keep away from loud noises. Eat a healthy diet. Listen to calm music if you can. The super high-frequency hearing deficit that you have will not affect your day to day life. It is picked up by the audiometry. Tinnitus is a different entity. It requires habituation. You will need to train your ears to accept it and mask it gradually. There are techniques for it. You can listen to white band noise. Listening to calming music and reducing your worries also help a lot in achieving relief from tinnitus.

Hi,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

You do not have to worry about the ordinary sounds. The background noise or music played in the supermarket, or the noise of people talking or chit-chatting will not cause any deterioration in the hearing unless they exceed specific intensities and are loud. But, if you are bothered or irritated by such sounds, you can keep ear plugs but not because they will cause hearing loss to you. To protect your hearing, you should take a healthy diet and do regular exercises. Avoid loud sounds and acoustic trauma. Avoid ototoxic medications. If you have a genetic predisposition to hearing loss with age, you may still get hearing loss with age. Everyday sounds will not cause any deterioration in your hearing. You can live your life like everyone.