Love music? Enjoy going to gigs? Like clubbing? A survey by the Royal National Institute for the Deaf discovered that 73% of people who have ever been to a club, gig, concert or festival have had ringing in their ears after a night out. This is a warning sign that you've been working your ears too hard, and over time it could cause some lasting damage to your hearing.



So what happens to the ear when we go to a gig or clubbing? We hear music as sound waves or vibrations, which are funneled from the outer ear down the ear canal and cause the eardrum to vibrate. On the other side of the drum membrane the three small bones of the middle ear transmit those sound vibrations to the inner ear, where the tiny hairs of the cochlea, a snail shaped organ, transmits those vibrations to the brain via the auditory nerve. Loud noise vibrations can damage the delicate hairs of the cochlea, rather like a strong wind bending over a sapling, and you lose some of your hearing, though it can recover if you get out of the noisy environment reasonably quickly.

Eventually, over a long period of time, hair cells are permanently damaged and cannot recover. Any kind of loud music can cause temporary and eventually permanent hearing loss, and the music doesn't have to be so loud that it hurts. If you can't talk to people about two metres away without shouting, then your hearing is in serious danger.

Experts say that prolonged exposure to anything about 85 decibels can cause damage. The average nightclub pumps out 110 decibels, which can damage hearing after 30 minutes. A rock concert hits 110 to 130 decibels, which can damage hearing from just over three minutes to 30 minutes. Prolonged exposure to these levels over time means you'll be unable to hear high frequencies, music will sound muffled and you'll find it hard to hear sibilant sounds in speech clearly.

So what are your choices? Well it means you can only go to a gig or club for 15 minutes – not a popular suggestion. Alternatively, you can protect your ears with one of the many discreet and effective music-safe earplugs that are on the market that can reduce noise levels by between 20 and 27 decibels. These earplugs are specially designed for loud music and will mean you can enjoy nightclubs and concerts without paying for it the next day, or indeed later in life.

Music professionals such as DJ's, musicians and others who work in close proximity to amplifiers and other sound equipment need to protect their ears. Pete Townshend of The Who is perhaps one of the most famous cases of a musician who has lost his hearing due to prolonged exposure to excessive noise levels. A Who concert in 1976 was listed in the Guinness Book of Records for having a volume level of 126 decibels 32 metres from the stage!

Special musician's earplugs can lower the volume of the music without distorting the sound, and play a huge factor in preventing tinnitus in later years. Specially designed earplugs can make it safer for those involved in the music business to do their job and ensure that both the musician's, DJ's and their fans will be able rock well into their pension years.