May is Hearing Month
May is Better Hearing & Speech Month
How are your Ears Doing?
Hearing problems are the third most chronic health condition in the United States. These problems can be linked to loud noise exposure, heredity, repeated colds, long standing diabetes, or high blood pressure, and even side effects of certain drugs. Issues with hearing can affect a person socially. Whether it is trying to have a conversation with friends, listen to the TV, or enjoy your favorite music; not being able to hear properly can take the joy out of your favorite activities.
Here is some healthy ear advice:
When swimming, use swimmer’s ear plugs to the keep the ears dry. This prevents swimmers ear infections.
- Avoid loud noises, use protection like ear plugs or ear muffs when operating noisy machinery
- Turn down the volume of your Personal CD/MP3 player
- Every child and adult should have a hearing test done annually
- Clean ears regularly (A build up of ear wax can mask infections and decrease hearing ability)
- Avoid using Q-tips as much as possible to clean out your ears.
We encourage you to maintain optimum hearing health and to help identify early hearing loss in both children & adults. During your annual physical, we offer hearing tests as well. Hearing tests may indicate any ear disorders, infections, or hearing problems that you may have. At America’s Family Doctors we use diagnostic equipment to aid us in the diagnosis and management of these ear related problems such as:
- Hearing Loss
- Dizziness
- Vertigo
- Middle ear disorders, ear infections, or fluid in the middle ear
- Tinnitus or ringing in the ears
- Ear ache or fullness / pressure in the ears
