Is a sound sensitive person at greater risk of deafness?

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manlyadam
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01 May 2011, 5:16 am

I worry sometimes because louder noises which don't seem to bother normal people physically hurt my ears and I really don't want to damage my hearing, do you think the pain could be a warning about potential damage or are we just more sensitive but actually have the same threshold for damage?



izzeme
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01 May 2011, 5:23 am

i'd say we have the same damage threshold, although staying away from these sound will never hurt.
i myself found that i have less hearing damage then my friends, while being at the same situations; this is becouse i always carry hearing protection with me, and am not ashamed to put it in at the first sign of noise...



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01 May 2011, 6:09 am

Some loud noises only present a danger of hearing damage after a period of time such as running a chainsaw for 1-2 hours or longer.



Jellybean
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01 May 2011, 7:09 am

You mustn't worry about this. I too used to worry about this because I have very sensitive hearing. My audiologist explained to me that it is only your brain perceiving the noise as louder than it is, therefore there is no chance of physical damage from lower decibel sound. Obviously, you must still be careful of higher decibel sounds and long term damage can arise from these, but not from lower sounds.

Hope I have eased your worries :)


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buryuntime
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01 May 2011, 9:49 am

I should think being sensitive to sound is more evidence that your hearing is superior and thus less likely to have as serious effects if hearing loss did occur.



XLCR
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01 May 2011, 10:49 am

And here we have a test dummy, in the person of me. I gave it the full test by spending twenty years in front of a loud amp as a lead guitarist. I do have ear damage, I hear ringing all of the time, but I can tune it out most of the time. However, my hearing was better than average to begin with, and it still is. Not to say I haven't lost something, but as someone else guessed, having more to begin with means having more to lose without serious loss. I don't know how much I've lost, but I can still hear well.



mynameisknown
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01 May 2011, 11:16 am

I have very sensitive hearing. I can listen to cars coming down my dead end road and guess who it is most the time, from the opposite side of the house with all the doors and windows closed. Some are such a low frequency I get a feeling its there with minimal audio cues, no one else has been able to hear them (except the trucks). I can tell the difference between a UPS truck and Fedex :)

I got a new revolver awhile back and took a friend out shooting. We each fired 6 rounds and headed home, because bullets are expensive! For the rest of the night my ears were ringing and were mildly painful. The ringing subsided but was still there the next day. Neither of us are avid shooters, but he was completely fine.

I didn't maintain any perceivable damage, but I'm curious if there have been any studies on this.



quietbird
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01 May 2011, 12:40 pm

Yes, you can damage your hearing with firearms.

I ALWAYS wear ear protection when I shoot, even if it's a 22lr. Some people who frequent indoor ranges double up, wearing both plugs and ear muffs, because it gets so loud inside.



Janissy
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01 May 2011, 1:04 pm

Do your ears ring after you hear these sounds? The ringing is the actual warning for damage.