It is important to recognise that if you lose your hearing it won’t come back.

A hearing loss does not protect your ears from the damaging effects of excessive noise. Intense sounds will do damage even if you have a pre existing loss. It is therefore important that you protect your hearing as much as a person with normal hearing.

You should always wear hearing protection when engaged in noisy activities. In particular lawn mowers, power tools and hammering are quite harmful to your ears. Intense short sharp sounds, eg hammering, are the most damaging types of noise.

Take extra care when exposed to these types of noise. If you find your ears are ringing after engagement in a noisy activity this is a sign you may have caused some temporary damage. Make sure you protect your ears when doing this activity again in the future.

Your audiologist can give you advice about different types of hearing protection.

• If you lose your hearing it won’t come back.
• Hearing loss does not protect your ears from further noise-induced damage.