(WNDU) – 26 million men and women have hearing problems.

The impact of hearing loss can be profound.

It can lead to loss of communication, social isolation and even an increased risk of dementia.

But did you know that teenagers, even young children can experience noise-induced hearing loss?

In fact, more than 5 million children between the ages of 6 and 19 are affected by it.

And for them, it can lead to depression, isolation and even delayed language development.

So what can you do to protect your children?

Does your child have selective hearing or could he have the beginnings of hearing loss?

Normal everyday activities can cause noise-induced hearing loss in children.

“Shooting guns without ear protection, singing in rock bands, listening to headphones too loud for too long, these actually expose some people to losing access to the sounds they need to hear for development language”, said dr. Brian Fligor, a pediatric audiologist at Tobias and Battite Hearing Wellness.

Pediatric audiologist Brian Fligor said noise above 75 decibels can start to affect a child’s hearing. Normal conversation is 60 decibels. But dr. Fligor believes that a constant noise from hair dryers could be the cause.

Motorcycles, music, sirens and fireworks can cause irreversible damage. There could be a problem if you notice that your child has difficulty hearing soft or faint sounds, if they complain that conversations are muffled, if they ask you to repeat things and…

“So one of the first things a child will report if there’s some concern about hearing loss is that they’ll have a ringing, buzzing, hissing in their ears,” said Dr. Fligor.

So it is up to parents to protect their children. Most importantly, if you think there is a problem.

Check your child’s hearing with their doctor.

A common myth is that parents think that if they can hear the music coming out of their child’s headphones… it’s too loud.

When in fact you don’t need to hear it for it to already be damaging your children’s hearing.

And remember, not all hearing loss is permanent.

It can also be caused by excess earwax, an infection or head trauma.

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