With summer here and festival season in full swing, it felt like the right time to talk about something really important: protecting your hearing around loud noise. It’s a topic that is very close to home for me, and I’ll explain why a little further on.
What loud noise actually does to your hearing
Your inner ear contains thousands of tiny hair cells responsible for converting sound into signals that your brain can interpret. When you’re exposed to loud noise, whether that’s a festival stage, a nightclub, or an powerful speaker at a party, these hair cells can become damaged. Unlike many other cells in the body, they do not regenerate. Once they are gone, they are gone.
Noise-induced hearing loss is often gradual, building up over years of repeated exposure. But it can also happen suddenly, in a single incident, with little warning.
It happened in my own home
A few years ago, my husband experienced a sudden noise-induced hearing loss after being exposed to an excessively loud speaker at a party. As soon as we left the party, my husband developed constant tinnitus, which for him was a ringing in his ears. For many people, this never fully goes away.
As an audiologist, I knew exactly what to do. I carried out a hearing assessment, which showed a mild high frequency sensori-neural hearing loss: in other words, the damage was in the nerve pathway of his hearing, not the middle ear. Because we were still within seven days of the incident, I took him straight to A&E and insisted on a course of steroid treatment, which is the recommended intervention when caught early enough.
The steroids were strong, and it wasn’t a comfortable week. But when I repeated his hearing assessment after he finished the course, his hearing had returned to normal. We were incredibly fortunate.
Since then, my husband religiously wears ear protection around any loud noise: fireworks, parties, concerts, you name it. That one experience changed his approach entirely, and I hope sharing it might do the same for some of you reading this.
How common is noise-induced hearing loss?
This isn’t a rare or niche problem. A 2025 survey by RNID : the UK’s leading hearing loss charity found that over half of Gen Z have already experienced hearing problems from loud music. Many will not realise it, yet noise-induced hearing loss can be silent for years before it becomes noticeable in everyday life. By the time people seek help, the damage is often already done.
(Source: RNID, July 2025 — rnid.org.uk)
What you can do
The good news is that noise-induced hearing loss is largely preventable. A few simple habits can make a significant difference:
- Follow the 60/60 rule limit listening through headphones or earphones to no more than 60 decibels and no longer than 60 minutes at a time. A good guide is keeping the volume at a level where you can still hold a normal conversation without raising your voice
- Keep the volume down on personal devices and take regular listening breaks
- Move away from speakers at events where possible
- Be aware of how long you are exposed to loud noise, not just how loud it is
- Wear ear protection at loud events and make sure it is the right kind
Custom ear protection: Worth the investment
Standard foam earplugs muffle sound and can make music feel flat and dull, which is why many people simply don’t bother. Custom ear protection, fitted by an audiologist, is a completely different experience. Moulded precisely to the shape of your ear canal, custom plugs reduce volume evenly across frequencies, so music still sounds like music, just at a safer level.
At M H Hearingcare, I offer custom ear protection fitting for musicians, concert-goers, and anyone regularly exposed to loud environments. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch at info@mhhearingcare.co.uk or use the contact form below.
If you’re concerned about your hearing
If you’ve noticed ringing in your ears or muffled sounds after a loud event, please don’t panic: this can be a temporary threshold shift, which may take up to 48 hours to settle. However, if your symptoms persist beyond that time, please don’t ignore it. As my husband’s experience shows, acting quickly can make all the difference. Get in touch and I’ll be happy to help.
Until next time,
Sophia