Check, protect, adjust your hearing - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Check, protect, adjust your hearing

If you find yourself leaning in more during conversations, turning up the TV to make out the dialogue or just not being able to shake that ringing in your ears, it’s time to tune in to what’s really going on.

If something is causing irreversible hearing damage, you want to get a bead on it quickly before the soundtrack of your life wanes to zero.

Here’s how to get sound truth on your ear-brain calibration circuits, prevent audio blackout and find help if you’re already hearing less:

CHECK

• Sound truth: Betterhearing.org offers an online screening test for a quick reality check on possible hearing loss. The nonprofit organization provides an earful of other resources as well.

• Clean out. Missing out on those sounds could be due to something as simple as wax buildup. You’ll make it worse by trying to dig it out, says the Mayo Clinic. See a doctor or get a pharmacist-recommended removal kit.

• Retest. Everyone gets a hearing test done when they enter the service. If you think you’re suffering hearing loss, doctors will give you another test to see exactly what the loss is. If you work in a high-noise military job, you’re required to get tested annually.

PROTECT

• Plug ’em: You’ve heard it a million times, but earplugs are less than an ounce of prevention that’s worth far more than the pounding you’ll give yourself later when shopping for hearing aids.

• Turn it down: Sure, war is hell on unprotected ears, but iPods, TVs and radios jacked up too high can rip up your eardrums as badly as artillery and gunfire.

• Three-foot rule: If you have to “shout above the noise to be heard by someone standing three feet away,” then the noise could be damaging your hearing, according to the experts at the Army Hearing Program.

ADJUST

• Can you hear me now? If it’s time to turn up the volume, check on getting a hearing aid. Talk to your doctor and shop around to find what’s best for you.

• Join up: The Hearing Loss Association of America offers free membership to Iraq and Afghanistan vets and is covering registration costs for veterans who want to attend its annual conference June 17-20 in Milwaukee.

• Learn more: The Rochester Institute of Technology, home of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, cuts tuition by two-thirds for students with hearing loss who are pursuing undergrad or master’s programs. Go online to http://www.rit.edu/ntid/veterans/ to learn more.

Related reading

• War is hell — on your hearing