Otoacoustic Emissions: Reducing and Preventing Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

Hearing conservationists need effective schemes to determine whether their hearing-conservation programs (HCPs) are successful, determine whether new interventions are helpful, and establish which personnel in their care have an increased risk for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). For long-term evaluations of HCPs (i.e., greater than one year), the gap between test and retest for the control group should be around the same duration as for the noise-exposed group to factor in age-related PES rate changes. * Group-Average OAEs An alternative to PES rates is to consider changes in group-average OAE levels over time.\n However, OAEs measured with low-level stimuli are more sensitive to changes subsequent to noise exposure. Examples of innate factors include genetic mutations or polymorphisms associated with hearing loss, normal anatomical and physiological variations such as the transfer function of the outer and middle ear, and OAE efferent strength and the middle-ear acoustic reflex.