AUSTIN, Texas — Weekend 2 of the Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) kicks off Friday. Although nothing beats the opportunity to see your favorite artists live, while at shows, it's easy to forget the importance of keeping your hearing safe.
Dr. Tony Milesi, a doctor of audiology at RK Audiology, said anytime that you're around really loud noises for an extended amount of time, you have a risk of doing damage to your hearing.
"It's something to take super seriously because you only get one set of ears," Milesi said. "So it's really important that you take care of them. You want to make sure that you're you're going to be able to use them for a long time."
When it comes to noise-induced hearing loss, Milesi said it's usually a more high-frequency hearing loss that's due to the mapping of the cochlea, which houses all of your permanent hearing. So when a loud noise comes in, it can damage those highs first and it starts to affect the clarity of what you're hearing, speech, and conversation.
"A lot of times when people have that noise-induced hearing loss over a period of time, you hear them say, everyone mumbles, everyone needs to speak a little bit louder, things like that. It's not necessarily other people. Sometimes it can be, unfortunately, just due to that hearing loss, not giving you the clarity that you need," Milesi said.
Whether it's foam plugs or custom-filtered plugs, it's important to use them when out in loud concert environments because Milesi said sounds can get up to gunshot levels.
At RK Audiology's south office, experts make custom filter plugs out of a soft silicone mold of your ear that slides right in place. The earplug has a little filter built-in at the end of it that helps bring down the overall sound level.
"Don't take your hearing for granted. That's the biggest thing I can say. I know a lot of people who come in with that mentality and now they have issues with hearing," Milesi said. "They have trouble hearing, and that, with that clarity aspect, they might have ringing in the ears or tinnitus. That's also a very common side effect of noise-induced hearing loss."
RK Audiology is offering free foam hearing protection at their Westlake and South Austin offices for anyone interested and in need of hearing protection for ACL.