Cotton wool, water and auditory tubes: How to care for your ears
If you ask any person to list five main types of perception, then after sight he is likely to call hearing. At the same time, we often know little about our own ears, except that it lays them in an airplane because of a change in pressure, and an otolaryngologist treats otitis. We tried to figure out whether the headphones could be harmful, what violations to call the doctor, whether earbudding on the plane can be facilitated and how to properly care for the ears if cotton buds are dangerous.
Are headphones safe?
According to WHO, more than a billion children and young adults (from 12 to 35 years old) have an increased risk of hearing loss due to exposure to noise during rest - and 60% of the cases of hearing loss in children could be prevented. One of the reasons - incorrect use of headphones. In each ear there are about eighteen thousand so-called cilia - tiny hair cells that transmit sound. They participate in a process that directs an electrical signal to the brain, where it is then translated into a recognizable sound. Too high a level of sound damages the hair cells - and if they die, they are no longer restored.
It is difficult to say which headphones are safer: on the one hand, the external part of the sound dissipates even before falling into the ear canal, and on the other, it can lead to the fact that a person will just make it louder. Often you want to add volume because the sound is not very high quality or, for example, the bass is poorly transmitted - so it’s better not to spare money on high-quality headphones that transmit the sound as clean as possible. For security reasons, it is recommended to listen to music at a level no higher than 85 decibels no more than eight hours a day. However, few people have a decibel counter at hand, so it’s easier to stick to the 60/60 rule: listen for no more than an hour in a row and with a volume of no more than 60% of the maximum. By the way, in the settings of many gadgets, you can set the maximum allowable volume level.
Why in the plane lays ears
Laying the ears is really associated with a sharp change in air pressure, when the pressure in the middle ear does not have time to equalize with others. Most often this happens on takeoff and landing - in English the phenomenon itself is called “airplane ear” - but it also happens when moving on a high-speed elevator, scuba diving or in a situation where an explosion occurred near. In addition to laying, you can feel a slight discomfort or pain in the ear, a feeling of fullness, a slight decrease in hearing. Sometimes the symptoms become more severe: severe pain, significant loss of hearing, ringing in the ears, dizziness, and even nausea. If these symptoms do not go away after a few hours after the flight, it is better to consult a doctor.
Most passengers know how to prevent or alleviate this condition: yawn, swallow, or chew gum. Actually, for this purpose, airplanes used to hand out caramel (and sometimes continue to distribute): when swallowing saliva, the pressure in the middle ear is gradually compared to the surrounding. The American Academy of Otolaryngology recommends that when taking off and landing, to level with pressure “nose blowing”: get air, close your mouth and nose and try to exhale through the nose. Colds, or rather, runny nose - this is a risk factor for otitis (ear inflammation) after the flight, so even with a light runny nose in an airplane, you should use vasoconstrictor drops or spray. Risk factors for more pronounced symptoms, such as pain in the ears, include sleep during landing and take-off - it does not control the level of pressure, so sleep is not recommended. Children who still can not do the exercise to equalize the pressure, you need to give water or milk.
Is it harmful to the ears?
Sometimes it is possible to hear that you cannot wet children's ears - and adults allegedly need to wipe dry as quickly as possible. In fact, reasonable amounts of water do not harm if the ears are healthy. But there is such a condition as a swimmer's ear - it is an acute inflammation of the outer ear, extremely painful and unpleasant, and it is really associated with a long stay in the water, although this is not the root cause. If you stay in a wet environment for a very long time, the bacteria that are usually present on the skin and in the ear, actively multiply - and any damage to the skin of the ear canal can be complicated by infection. This condition must be treated - consult a doctor who will prescribe ear drops and, possibly, antibiotics.
Where does tinnitus come from
A sound that is not really present — noise or ringing — is heard by every fifth person on earth, and this condition is called tinnitus. Tinnitus itself is not a disease, but it can be a symptom of innocuous and rather dangerous conditions, so it deserves a visit to the doctor. Noise can be one-way or be noted in both ears, reaching a volume that makes it difficult to concentrate or hear the real sound. The cause of tinnitus can be, for example, age-related changes and disorders of the bone tissue conducting the sound, exposure to loud noise when working with equipment or at a concert - and also earwax accumulation. In fact, earwax is a protective substance that picks up dirt and dust and slows the growth of bacteria. But if it accumulates a lot, then hearing can deteriorate, and irritation of the eardrum will lead to ringing in the ears.
Tinnitus is caused by problems in the outer, middle, or inner ear - and may also be associated with the work of the auditory nerves or part of the brain that perceives the received signals as sound. By the way, besides, subjective tinnitus, in which tinnitus is not audible to others, there is also an objective - when the doctor can hear him during the examination. This is a rare type of tinnitus that is caused by the work of blood vessels, the condition of the bones of the ears, or the work of muscles.
Are cotton buds dangerous?
Cotton swabs - a useful thing when you need to touch up makeup, but dangerous if you put it in your ear, trying to pull out ear wax. However, other items - stealth, tweezers, pencils and paper clips - for this, it is also better not to use. In general, earwax is constantly moving along the ear canal from the eardrum to the outside - this is facilitated by chewing food, speech and yawning. To maintain hygiene, it is enough to care for the ears, wash them with soap and water or shampoo when you take a shower.
In the ear canal, sulfur performs a protective and moisturizing function - and an attempt to pull it out with a cotton swab will only push the sulfur closer to the eardrum. This can result in injury and even hearing loss. If for some reason too much sulfur is formed, you can contact an ENT specialist who will remove its excess and tell you how to solve this problem in the future.
How ears are related to balance
Ears are responsible not only for hearing: in the inner ear there is an organ of balance and body position in space, the vestibular apparatus. It consists of the so-called semicircular canals - curved tubules with a liquid, located in three different planes. When the head is stationary and is located directly, the brain receives the same impulses from both vestibular apparatus - but with any change in position, because of the movement of fluid in these channels, the impulses, on the one hand, increase, and on the other, decrease. These changes are transmitted to the cerebral cortex, where they are analyzed along with information on body position and visual information — and a conscious sensation of head turning arises.
Any disease in which the signals from the vestibular apparatus to the brain are disturbed causes dizziness. And although neurologists usually deal with such disorders, with persistent dizziness, it is useful to register with an ENT doctor to rule out abnormalities in the inner ear.
What to do if the hearing is still broken
In many cases, hearing aids help - electronic devices that are inserted into or placed on the ear. Modern devices are almost invisible and help to hear and in silence, and against the background of noise, significantly improving the quality of life. They improve hearing loss due to damage to the hair cells of the inner ear - it can be age-related or associated with various diseases or exposure to noise. In fact, a hearing aid is an amplifier that increases the strength of a sound wave, and its stored hair cells pick it up and transfer it to the brain as nerve impulses. If the inner ear is seriously damaged and cannot convert signals, then the device, unfortunately, will not help.
There is evidence that only one out of five people who use the hearing aid uses it, apparently, this is due to psychological discomfort. Still, it is better to overcome the constraint: it is no more difficult for people around you to get used to the sight of a hearing aid than to look at glasses, but a full-fledged hearing greatly improves the quality of life and increases safety - for example, if you are a pedestrian or driver. If you suspect a hearing loss, you should contact an otolaryngologist or an audiologist, a specialist in hearing.
Photo: gemaibarra - stock.adobe.com, alexlukin - stock.adobe.com, Vladimir Liverts - stock.adobe.com, andras_csontos - stock.adobe.com
