How does excessive noise affect my hearing?

How does excessive noise affect my hearing?

Excessive noise can be dangerous in long periods of exposure. Usually OSHA mandates your noise level be under 85 decibels, or you need some protective hearing device, meaning earphones or earplugs. Hearing thresholds: which are the level where the sound becomes painful to the ears. For example if you're at a rock concert and you feel when you leave that you have ringing in your ears, or you have to shout to be understood, or communicate with someone who's sitting right next to you, you're probably in an environment where the sound is too loud. If you're exposed over a short period of time you will actually suffer some hearing loss but it's temporarily and over the next day or two your hearing will come back. If you're constantly exposed to that loud noise you can permanently lose your hearing. It's usually in the high frequencies that you would lose your hearing. Another cause of hearing loss is patients who are either in the military or police and they are around weapons and the gunfire is a very common cause of hearing loss as well, so at the range you see the people wearing protective ear coverings as well to help prevent them from getting hearing loss.