Healthy Habit #1: Drop the cotton swab.
The old doctor’s adage to not put anything smaller than an elbow in your ear is true! In fact, “cleaning” your ears with a cotton swab (or worse) does far more damage than good by impacting ear wax further into the canal and by removing the protective keratin layer, leaving the ear open for infection and trauma. How do you keep your ears clean? You don’t! Our ears are self-cleaning if we allow the natural processes to do their work.
Healthy Habit #2: Carry ear plugs & don’t be shy about using them
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Noisy machinery, loud music, impromptu motorcycle rides — these all can have a devastating effect on one’s hearing. If you have a regular need for ear protection DigiCare can custom make molded earplugs.
Healthy Habit #3: Be aware of the side effects of medications & discuss your concerns with your doctor
Approximatley 200 drugs are considered potentially ototoxic; these medications range from certain antibiotics to various anti-cancer and diuretic drugs. Ototoxic medications may aggravate existing hearing problems, cause tinnitus or lead to temporary or even permanent hearing loss. The benefits of the drug treatment may outweigh the risks, given your particular medical need. However, for non-life threatening conditions, the risk may not be worth taking. Get educated and talk to your physician.
Healthy Habit #4: Schedule a comprehensive DigiCare hearing test & evaluation
You don’t think twice about a visit to your optometrist and you’ve made an annual or semi-annual trip to the dentist for years. Why have you perhaps never taken time for a hearing test?
The reality for most is that a hearing loss is invisible and gradual, many times occurring over years. Sometimes a family member notices a hearing loss before you do. An unmitigated hearing loss can have critical effects on not only one’s day-to-day life but also one’s physical and mental health.
The test will determine (1) if you have a hearing loss (2) the degree of hearing loss (3) the type of hearing loss and (4) the configuration of hearing loss. At the very least, your audiogram — the graphical results of your test – will serve as an excellent starting point to compare later hearing test.
Healthy Habit #5: Take control by educating yourself
Our DigiCare website is meant to serve as a resource for information on hearing health. Browse through our library; call or email us with questions. We’re here to help! If you’re in the neighborhood, we’d love for you to join us at one of our free DigiCare Learning Events.
- We’ve selected articles from our DigiCare Library that you may find helpful in learning more about these good habits of healthy hearing:
- Additionally, you may have an interest in learning more about DigiCare's custom earplugs.
