CINCINNATI (WKRC) - As you get ready to head to the Cincinnati Music Festival this weekend at Paul Brown Stadium, healthcare providers have a word of caution today about potential danger of loud music at festivals to your long-term hearing.
A new study in the journal Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery says what you do now as you enjoy the music might make a difference in whether or not you can hear later.
Specialists at the Cleveland Clinic who reviewed this study and supplied the video say wearing ear plugs makes a difference.
Dr. Mike Hill of Hill Hear Better Clinic agrees and says not all ear plugs are the same. You can choose different filters and some even monitor your ears.
"If you are going to concerts, you can change," Dr. Hill said. "If you are a drummer, if you are a guitarist, you can change the filters according to what you need as well. We've been doing a lot of custom in-the-ear hearing monitors because musicians as loud as they play, they get hearing loss and so now, they wear these monitors. They can monitor what they want to and they don't get as much hearing loss from playing."
In this new study on wearing protection at music festivals, researchers found the people who wore the ear plugs had hearing get better after they were tested than before. The ones that did not have ear plugs had a big decrease in hearing ability.
As part of the study, researchers looked at a group of 51 people attending an outdoor music festival. Half of the participants were given ear plugs to wear, while the other half went without ear plugs.
Researchers discovered that after four and a half hours of music, people were more likely to experience temporary loss of hearing if they were not wearing protective ear plugs.
Hearing experts warn that the ringing that you might feel in your ears following a concert is not just temporary. It can actually cause permanent damage in the microscopic features in the ear.
Researchers noted that some of the study participants complained that the ear plugs reduced the sound quality of the concert.
So, if you like to go to a lot of concert, it might be worth getting either custom or quality ear plugs. Some start as low in cost as about twenty dollars.
