How Attending Loud Concerts Can Damage Your Hearing

There's something magical about attending live concerts. Seeing your favorite musicians performing on stage wakes something inside of you and makes you feel so connected to the music. When you walk out of the venue with ringing in your ears, the experience seems worth the discomfort—but is it? Loud concerts can permanently damage your hearing much faster and more extensively than you realize.

How Loud Does a Concert Have to Be to Cause Damage?

It wasn't that loud. Have you ever used this response after a parent or friend warned you of the dangers of loud concerts? You're not alone. But you're probably wrong.

Sound is measured in units called decibels. A whisper registers around 30 decibels, and normal speech is around 60 decibels. Any sound over 85 decibels has the potential to cause hearing loss, and the louder the sound is, the faster the hearing loss occurs.

Concert music often exceeds 100 decibels, and hearing loss occurs pretty quickly at that level. Just two minutes of exposure to 110 decibels can cause damage. And 110 decibels does not seem that loud because sound does not cause pain until about 120 decibels.

Of course, attending super-loud rock and metal concerts will likely cause even more damage. The loudest concert ever was performed by Swedish rock group Sleazy Joe in 2008, according to writer Chuck Smeeton. Sleazy Joe reached 143.2 decibels—and surely caused a lot of hearing loss in the process.

How Does the Noise Actually Damage Your Ears?

Perhaps one reason people tend to ignore noise-related hearing damage is that it is hard to visualize. You cannot see sound, so imagining sound physically damaging your ears is rather abstract. Learning a bit more about the way your ear works can help.

Inside your ear, you have tiny little cells called hair cells. These hair cells bend back in response to the vibrations that are sound, triggering your auditory nerve in the process. Sounds that are too loud cause the hair cells to over-bend and snap. Once they're broken, they often die—and they cannot grow back or be repaired, says Medical News Today.

A few minutes at a loud, 120-decibel concert may kill a lot of hair cells at once. Hours at semi-loud, 100-decibel concerts, spread out over a lifetime, will kill a few hair cells at a time. But the end result is the same: fewer hair cells and resulting hearing loss.

If Concerts Are So Bad, Why Doesn't Everyone Have Hearing Aids?

Not everyone has hearing loss, but an alarming fraction of people actually do! About 20 percent of Americans report some degree of hearing loss, and there are likely a lot more people suffering from undiagnosed hearing loss.

The stigma attached to hearing loss and hearing aids causes people to avoid seeking treatment. Experts estimate that only 16 percent of the 28.8 million American adults who could benefit from hearing aids actually use them.

Just because you know people who attend concerts and don't yet wear hearing aids does not mean loud concerts are safe. Those people may actually need hearing aids, and so will you if you don't take the right precautions.

How Can You Protect Your Hearing During Loud Concerts?

You could give up attending concerts altogether, but you'd be missing out on an enjoyable part of the human experience. Thankfully, there are ways to protect your ears without spending the evening alone on your sofa.

Sit further away from the speakers. As a bonus, 200-level and 300-level seats are typically cheaper than floor seats. Also, be reasonable with your selection of concerts. If you love rock concerts, by all means, attend them. But think twice before seeing bands that are known for their attempts to set sound records.

The ultimate way to protect your hearing at concerts is to wear earplugs. Musician earplugs are a good choice because they dampen the noise without reducing the clarity. You can also look into other forms of hearing aids and accessories.

Loud concerts are a lot of fun, but you may pay for that fun later in the form of hearing loss. Keep the advice above in mind, and contact Accurate Hearing Technology Inc. if you're looking for high-quality musician earplugs.