That's the advice of Veronica Heide, a Madison audiologist in private practice. Her company is called Audible Difference.

She encourages people of all ages to practice "safe hearing." Noise-induced hearing loss cannot be restored, but it can be prevented.

"A good rule of thumb is that if you have to raise your voice or shout to be heard, then the noise is loud enough that, over time, your ears will feel it," Heide warns.

It's also a good idea to pay attention to tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. If this happens after a loud concert, for example, it's a sign of potential hearing damage.

Besides that, if you need to turn up the volume on your car radio after partying with a loud band or using power tools at work, you're probably experiencing a temporary threshold shift and loss of some hearing, which may become permanent with repeated exposure.

"Hearing loss from noise exposure is related to two variables -- duration and intensity," Heide says. "The higher the sound and the longer the time of exposure, the greater the risk of damage to your hearing.

"You don't necessarily see it or feel it, but noise-induced hearing loss is happening all the time."

Simply put, the hair cells in your ear act like blades of grass -- walk on them a little, and they recover. Walk on them too much, and the damage is permanent.

About 28 million Americans have a hearing impairment, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

Hearing loss is greater in men. After age 65, about one-third of our population is deaf or hard of hearing. By age 75, it increases to 50 percent.

But hearing loss is not solely an effect of aging. A recent study found that 12 percent of all children ages 6 to 19 are damaging their hearing by exposure to noise, and the number is growing.

That's why Heide encourages people to have a hearing evaluation of their personal sound system, which includes iPods, cell phones, stereos and computers. The test, which typically costs less than $100, uses in-ear microphones to measure sound levels in the ear canal.

"Hearing is becoming a more important issue these days because we're bombarding our ears so much more with all of our fancy toys and devices," Heide says.

"Cell phones and iPods are really hard on our ears because the sound is intense, and it's directed right into our ears, so our risk factors for noise-induced hearing loss are much greater than they were five or 10 years ago."

Riley Sattler, a senior at West High School, recently had his personal sound system evaluated.

"I'm a musician -- a percussionist -- so my hearing is very important to me," he says.

Sattler plays in his school honor band, orchestra and jazz combo. He also has participated in the Madison All City High School Jazz Orchestra and plays in other jazz bands.

"I've been playing drums for 13 years, and I go to a lot of concerts so my ears are bombarded with lots of noise," he says. "A few years ago, I started to get tinnitus, which was very distracting."

To fix the problem and to conserve his hearing, Sattler now uses filtered earplugs at concerts and an in-ear monitoring system when he performs.

"Some musicians believe that a lot of the excitement and thrill of the music is lost when you use earplugs or in-ear monitors," Sattler says, "but I've found that they actually enhance my performance. I still hear everything, and the sound is very colorful and vibrant, and my hearing is protected."

Noise level is measured with a decibel, or log rhythmic, scale. Damage starts to occur with extended exposure to sound levels of around 85 dBA.

Standards for normal hearing were set in the 1930s at the Wisconsin State Fair, using the ears of young adults.

"So Wisconsin is like the birthplace of hearing standards," Heide quips.

Because so many adolescents these days are showing evidence of early noise-induced hearing loss, researchers are wondering how aging will affect the problem.

Some say that Generation Xers have listened to loud rock concerts so they'll have greater hearing loss in retirement.

Another theory is that baby boomers had the benefit of childhood immunizations so they had fewer high fevers and less ear stress than earlier generations. Their hearing later in life should be better than what their grandparents had.

"The bottom line is that we need to wait a few more years before some of these answers are known," Heide says.

It is known, however, that technology of ear gear is on the upswing. Ear devices, which used to be called hearing aids, have digital feedback control these days and multiple memories. They even have remote controls that can answer your cell phone.

"In Europe, Apple computer built into their personal listening devices a loudness limit, and there's now a group of people in the United States lobbying to have that same software imposed on iPods," Heide says.

"But people need to be personally responsible for finding out if they're practicing safe sound because people with slight hearing losses often use iPods at higher volumes."

Hearing tests, she adds, give consumers the information they need to make good, healthy choices about their ears.

By Debra Carr-Elsing
http://www.madison.com/tct/features/index.php?ntid=75318