As I creep into my 40′s I am beginning to wonder what part of hearing loss is cause by damage and what is simply deterioration. Does that make sense? I guess another way to ask it would be, if someone protected their ears completely for their entire life, would they still need a hearing aid around age 80? Does hearing loss simply set in regardless or can well-protected ears operate perfectly forever. Does anyone know the answer to this?
On some level it is hypothetical and not perfectly helpful but I think it is interesting and may help us desire to protect our ears if we knew the answer. I suspect that most people are simply predestined to need to wear a hearing aid no matter how cautious they are. If this is the case, the next question is when does the hearing loss kick in? Is it in mid life around the 40s and 50s? Or do we see a more steep drop occur later in life.
Hearing is so crucial to our relationships with the world and our family that the more we know about it the better we can live and protect it. If anyone has any insight on when hearing loss tends to set in if outside factors were somehow eliminated, it would be wonderful to know the answer!
