Ways to prevent hearing loss
Most types of hearing loss are permanent, so it’s important to try and prevent it before it happens.
To prevent ear injury from loud noises, you can:
- lower your music, TV and radio so you can easily understand someone talking one metre away
- lower the volume on headphones or earphones – it shouldn’t be loud enough for someone next to you to hear
- wear earplugs or hearing protection equipment in loud environments
- take regular breaks from loud environments.
Ear infections or inflammation can also lead to hearing loss if they are not managed promptly. It is important to speak with your health professional if you notice any of the following symptoms in yourself or your child:
- pain
- discharge from the ear
- feeling unwell, vomiting or have a fever
- difficulty hearing properly
- repeated ear infections.
Ways to manage hearing loss
If you have a hearing loss, there are a range of management and treatment options that may help, including:
- adopting some simple communication strategies
- assistive listening devices such as personal amplifiers and headphones
- smart phone apps
- hearing aids
- cochlear implants.
Help to translate spoken language
There are free services that can help to translate:
-
spoken language to text
-
text to spoken language.
NALScribe
This free speech captioning app is available on Apple devices.
National Relay Service
This phone service is available for free for registered users.
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