I’ve got noise-induced (20 years in rock & roll bands) hearing loss. If I wore hearing protection 24x7, would my ears heal? Not that this is going to happen, but out of curiosity.
Contrary-wise, if I fill my kids’ ears with wax (or rather fit them with 24x7 hearing protection) would they have better hearing in old age? Let’s ignore that they would do poorly in school–this is a curiosity question. Theoretical. Speculative. No medical advice requested. Comments in this thread will not be used for making decisions regarding anyone’s future.
A lot of noise induced hearing loss is from chronic exposure and is, unfortunately, permanent. Various amplifiers and surgical procedures can help make noises louder or make what is not damaged more effecient, but cannot fix the problem.
That’s because the long term, noise exposure hearing loss is due to the tiny hairs inside the cochlea becoming damaged / broken / falling out.
Prevention is the key to healthy hearing, but there’s not much that’s cool about wearing bright yellow ear plugs to a concert.
Hearing loss - Wikipedia Link from Wiki, however most of the information I have quoted has come from 15 years in corporate hearing loss prevention classes.