Can you imagine not being able to listen to your favorite song? While some people are born deaf, anyone can lose their hearing later in life. Deafness is a non-reversible condition that cannot be cured. Your hearing can only be improved by using hearing aids that amplify sounds.

However, it is possible to prevent hearing loss. Some of the steps you could take towards this are:

Get your hearing tested regularly
Hearing loss does not happen suddenly. In most cases, it has a very gradual onset. By getting your ears tested regularly, you can arrest hearing loss in its early stages and prevent it from worsening.

Protect your ears at the workplace
Exposure to sounds that are higher than 90 decibels can damage your ears and cause deafness. Hence, if you work in a factory or other such noisy workplaces, wear protective earmuffs that safeguard your ears. These earmuffs are designed especially to reduce ambient noise to a more acceptable decibel level.

Avoid listening to loud music
Blasting the music on your stereo may sound cool but can damage your ears. Instead of playing music at full volume on your headphones, consider investing in a pair of noise cancelling headphones that keeps ambient noise from disturbing your music.

Clean your ears regularly
With time, earwax can build up inside your ears and muffle sounds. Hence cleaning your ears form time to time is important. It is even more important to clean your ears properly. Pushing a cotton swab inside your ear to clan the wax can push it in deeper than it as instead of cleaning it out. Instead, ask a doctor to clean your ears or use a home irrigation kit to soften the wax and wash it out.

Do not ignore ear infections
Infections of the middle ear such asotitis media commonly affect children as well as adults. If left untreated, this condition can damage the ear and cause hearing problems. Hearing loss can also be caused by frequent recurrence of such infections. Hence, get treatment as early as possible for ear infections and do not let them flare up.

Check your medications
Some antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs can cause hearing problems. These are known as ototoxic medications. Even aspirin when taken in high doses can cause deafness. Hence, do not self-medicate and only take prescription drugs from a registered doctor.