Hearing Loss

iHearSafe™ Safe Volume™ Earbuds and Headphones help prevent Noise Induced Hearing Loss with their patent pending, award-winning technology. iHearSafe™ Earbuds and Headphones can be used with any audio device and no matter how high the device volume is turned up, it will always remain below the 85dB threshold of when hearing damage can begin.

What is Noise Induced Hearing Loss?

When we are exposed to harmful impulse noise or loud sounds over a prolonged period, sensitive structures in our inner ear can be damaged causing Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). These sensitive structures, called hair cells, are small sensory cells in the inner ear that convert sound energy into electrical signals that travel to the brain. Once damaged, our hair cells cannot grow back.

Scientists once believed that the pure force of vibrations from loud sounds caused the damage to hair cells. Instead, recent studies have shown that exposure to harmful noise triggers the formation of molecules inside the ear that can damage or kill hair cells.

How much noise is too much?

Sounds louder than 85 decibels (dB) can damage your ears. A decibel is a unit that measures the intensity of sound on a scale from zero to 150. A normal conversation is about 60 dB. Chainsaws and bulldozers ring in at over 100 dB. And mp3 players can exceed 120dB!

What are the effects of NIHL?

Exposure to harmful sounds causes damage to the hair cells as well as the auditory, or hearing, nerve (see figure). Impulse sound can result in immediate hearing loss that may be permanent. This kind of hearing loss may be accompanied by tinnitus, a ringing, buzzing, or roaring in the ears or head, which may subside over time. Hearing loss and tinnitus may be experienced in one or both ears, and tinnitus may continue constantly or occasionally throughout a lifetime.

Continuous exposure to loud noise also can damage the structure of hair cells, resulting in hearing loss and tinnitus, although the process occurs more gradually than for impulse noise.