And as baby boomers reach retirement age, this number is expected to rise dramatically.

"I get a lot of baby boomers coming in to check up on their hearing," said Dr. Kimberly King, a local audiologist.

One of the reasons baby boomers are checking in with King is because of their repeated exposure to boisterous music or noise as a youth.

"When I was younger, I wanted to listen to my music loud," said Tommy Rhea, 45, a Conway resident and local musician. "But I don't now. I know that I've lost some of my hearing, so I stand farther back during concerts or to the side."

The government warns against exposure to more than 15 minutes of 115 decibels a day. That's about the typical level of a live rock concert.

Some boomers may be paying the price for their rock 'n' roll indulgences, but the majority are not.

According to King, highway traffic, airplanes, office machines and weed whackers are the main culprits.

"A lot of the people I see are experiencing hearing loss due to recreational activities, and lawn equipment and power tools are a big part of that," she said.

The solution, according to King, is simple: "Wear earplugs when you're working around loud noises."

People are born with about 15,000 sensory "hair" cell receptors lining the cochlea, the spiral-shaped cavity of the inner ear that contains nerve endings essential for hearing. Prolonged exposure to noise or music causes damage to the hair cells in the cochlea, and this can result in permanent hearing loss.

Noise-induced hearing loss usually develops gradually and painlessly.

"It can take 20 years for someone to lose their hearing," said Tommi Gray, an audiologist at the nonprofit PeeDee Speech and Hearing Center. "And once you have hearing loss, you always have hearing loss."

The good news is that hearing aids can help, and the latest devices are small, powerful and effective.

"People are adapting quicker with the new aids," King said.

The old hearing aids were cumbersome and blocked the ear's ability to detect natural sounds.

New devices such as the Beltone Edge are sleek and allow for natural hearing to still take place.

Hearing aid technology is advancing rapidly, according to King.

Devices that were manufactured in 2000 are now obsolete.

Many hearing aids are now tailor-made to the individual and are fine tuned according to a person's particular type of hearing loss.

"Everybody has their own particular hearing frequency loss," King said. "We can adjust the new aids to accommodate this."

About 95 percent of Americans with hearing loss could be successfully treated with hearing aids, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, but only 22 percent currently use them.

"A lot of people don't realize that most hearing losses can be treated with hearing aids," Gray said.

"Most people don't realize that untreated hearing loss can cause embarrassment, social stress, tension and fatigue, not only for the person with the hearing loss but also for family members, friends and work associates."

The most successful hearing aid users are those who are motivated to improve their communication by improving their listening and hearing, King said. "It is important for an individual to work with their audiologist to learn what they can expect from hearing aids."

A person is encouraged to visit an audiologist if they frequently complain that people mumble, that their speech is not clear, or that they only hear parts of conversations when other people are talking.

By Jon McMillian, The Sun News