Can Airpods Give You An Ear Infection

Ear Infection And Its Associated Risk Factors Comorbidity And Health Service Use In Australian Children

Vasoontara Yiengprugsawan

1The Australian National University, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health Acton, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia

2ANZSOG Institute for Governance, University of Canberra, Acton, Canberra, ACT 2617, Australia

Academic Editor:

Abstract

This study investigates and identifies risk factors, comorbidity, and health service use related to ear infection in Australian children. Two cross-sectional analyses of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children involved 4,983 children aged 4 to 5 years in 2004 and aged 10 to 11 years in 2010. Odds ratios were analysed using bivariate logistic regression. The prevalence of parent-reported ear infection was 7.9% among children aged 4 to 5 years and 3.3% at 10 to 11 years. Our study found that risk factors associated with ear infection were indigenous status, not being breastfed, mother or father smoking at least once a day, and fathers school completion at year 9 or lower. By age 10 to 11 years significantly reported comorbidities were tonsillitis , headache and ear infection was found to be associated with the use of pediatrician , other specialist , and early intervention services . This empirical evidence can be used to inform the development of intervention and management programs for ear infection.

1. Introduction

2. Data and Methods

2.1. Longitudinal Study of Australian Children Survey

2.2. Study Population and Statistical Analyses

3. Results

4. Discussion

Exposure To Environmental Debris And Irritants

At certain times of year, the pollen count increases, affecting not only the sinuses, but also the ears. Maybe you live near a factory that puts out environmental pollution or spend a lot of time in a dusty workplace. All these tiny particles can irritate your ears and stimulate extra earwax production. If you cant control your environment, protect yourself from it. Wear hats and ear protection when pollen counts and environmental pollutants are high and spend less time outside.

You cant always control how much earwax you have, but paying attention to these and other lifestyle habits that trigger excess production can help keep your ears buildup-free, hearing well, and free of infection.

Not Cleaning Your Earbuds Can Lead To Infections

Your ears naturally produce earwax, medically known as cerumen, to protect your ears. When you use earbuds often, that wax can stick to them and harbor bacteria. Repeatedly putting the earphones in your ears without disinfecting them can transfer the bacteria into your ear canal, which can lead to an infection, according to Baton Rouge General.

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Best Practices For Using Airpods

Here are some best practices for using AirPods and other types of headphones:

• Make sure that you can hear someone speaking to you whos an arms length away. If youre sitting on an airplane and cant hear a question from the person next to you, for example, your headphones are probably too loud.
• Keep your headphones at 80 percent of their total decibel level or lower.
• Dont listen to your headphones for more than 90 minutes at a time.
• Use a health tracker app installed in your device to track how long youre using your earphones each day and the average volume level.

Whats The Right Way To Use Earbuds

Noise-induced hearing loss due to earbuds is 100% preventable if you dont use them too long or too loudly.

Doctors recommend the 60%/60-minute rule:

• Listen to music or play a movie or video game at no more than 60% of the maximum volume.
• Limit the amount of time you spend with earbuds in your ears to 60 minutes.

Here’s another way to find out if your earbuds are at a safe volume: Ask people sitting near you if they can hear your music. If they can, it’s a sign that your hearing is being damaged. Turn the volume down until other people cant hear it.

Keep in mind, too, that listening to music at a loud volume can make you unaware of what’s going on around you. That increases your chances of an accident. If you’re running on a bike path, for example, it’s hard to hear a cyclist shout, “Heads up!” when your music drowns out all other sounds.

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Do Headphones Increase Ear Wax

Earbuds can increase ear wax build up. Even though our ears are self-cleaning, if we block the canal for multiple hours a day, the wax will not be able to work itself out of the ear. Sometimes, this forms a large plug of earwax, and your earbuds can push the wax deeper, causing trauma to the ear and ear pain.

How Earphones Might Affect This System

The ear is self-cleaning and best performs its function without interruption. However, anything that blocks the normal progression of earwax moving outside can cause issues.

Normal use of in-ear devices donât often cause a problem. But prolonged earphone use, such as if you leave them in all day, could:

• compress the earwax, making it less fluid and harder for the body to naturally expel
• compact the earwax to the extent the body induces inflammation. This results in white blood cells migrating to the area, increasing the number of cells in the blockage
• impact air flow and stop wet earwax drying out. When earwax retains its stickiness for prolonged periods of time, it encourages build-up
• trap sweat and moisture in the ears, making them more prone to bacterial and fungal infections
• create a barrier to the earwaxâs natural expulsion, which ends up stimulating the secretory glands and increasing earwax production
• reduce overall ear hygeine, if the pads of the earbuds are not cleaned properly, or contaminated with bacteria or infectious agents
• damage your hearing if the volume is set too high.

If the build-up accumulates, excessive earwax can cause hearing problems, along with other symptoms such as pain, dizziness, tinnitus, itching, and vertigo.

As they sit outside the ear canal, over-ear headphones are also less likely to cause any earwax compaction, or introduce bacteria or pathogens to the ear canal.

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Why Am I Getting A Headache From My Airpods

There is no definitive answer, but a few have been suggested, lets talk about each one.

EMF Radiation From AirPods

One strong possibility is the high amounts of EMF radiation being emitted from the device in such close proximity to your head. In fact, if you use a quality EMF meter , youll quickly realize just how much radiation Airpods emit.

If youve read my post on EMF exposure symptoms, you probably noticed that one of the most common symptoms to EMF radiation are headaches.

Although this is even more common with people that suffer from electro-hypersensitivity , it is commonly reported with any length of EMF radiation exposure from cell phones, laptops, smart meters, WiFi, and yes, Bluetooth headphones.

In an article , Dr. Joel Moskowitz, a professor at the UC Berekely School of Public Health warned that AirPods could be very dangerous to our health for this very reason.

In an interview with Daily Mail Online in 2015, Dr. Moskowitz said:

We are playing with fire here, Dr Joel Moskowitz, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, told Daily Mail Online. You are putting a microwave-emitting device next to your brain. This has been observed over several decades, he says. Its like we keep rediscovering that Bluetooth is harmful and trying to forget it because we dont know how to handle it from a policy standpoint.

So, are the headaches caused by AirPods from the EMF radiation emitted?

So, you may just want to err on the side of Dr. Moskowitz advice:

Are There Other Options

It might feel like every phone or music player comes packaged with a tiny pair of earbuds. After all, they’re cheap to make and easy to use.

So what can you do? Go retro with headphones. There’s a reason they’re making a comeback. Sometimes old-school is better. Most electronics stores have entire sections devoted to headphones. The best are noise-canceling headphones, which help block out other noises. That way, you don’t have to turn up the volume on your music as loud to hear it well. Noise-canceling headphones also can be good for staying focused on studying or homework, but they’re not great choices if you need to hear the world around you.

Headphones that go over your ears can also damage your hearing if you use them too long or play music too loudly. They’re just not as much of a risk as earbuds are: Having the source of the sound in your ear canal can increase a sound’s volume by 6 to 9 decibels enough to cause some serious problems.

Earbuds exist because so many of us love music. So protect your hearing so you can continue to appreciate music.

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Do Airpods Give You An Allergy 4 Tricks To Try To Avoid It

The allergies caused by the use of headphones They are not very frequent, but there are a number of representative cases that have led to more and more measures being taken to take care of their quality. However, there is no unanimity as to the factors that can cause them and it has been shown that any headset can cause these types of reactions.

Of the hundreds of options that exist for headphones, this time we will review the allergies caused by Apple AirPods and how we can prevent them.

Physical Damage To Your Ear

Your AirPods may cause damage to your ears if you roll on the earbuds during the night.

The most likely outcome is mild discomfort due to the earbuds pressing into your ears at an awkward angle.

In more extreme cases, sustained, concentrated pressure on your ears may cause death of the skin cells .

This is one reason why I wouldnt recommend angling the earbuds in an effort to keep them in your ears more securely since this positioning may increase the risk of the earbud being forced further into your ear where damage may occur.

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Lifestyle Habits That Create Excess Earwax

Earwax is essential to keeping your ears clean and healthy, but it can also interfere with healthy hearing. When it builds up, it can cause hearing loss, physical discomfort, tinnitus, ear infections and other problems. Even though you cant always control how much earwax you produce , you can take charge of other daily habits that are contributing to the problem. Here are three habits that encourage excess earwax.

Can Airpods Harm Your Hearing

AirPods and other earbuds are only safe to use when youre listening to them at or below the decibel recommendation. If you listen to AirPods regularly as a way to drown out the surrounding noise of your workplace or travel, youre probably listening to them too loud. Over time, any type of headphones can permanently damage your hearing.

Hearing loss can also occur as a result of wearing headphones or earbuds too much. Once hearing loss occurs, it cant be repaired. An estimated of teens in the United States have some form of noise-induced hearing loss.

Over time, frequent headphone use can to how loud and for how long they are listening, making complications more likely.

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Can Wearing Headphones Cause Headaches

If youre walking around all day sporting wireless earbuds crammed in your ears, you might be affecting more than just your hearing. Voigt says that earbuds made from harder material can press up against the bone and the front of the ear canal, or the temporomandibular joint . The presence of a hard earbud in that area pressing against the jaw joint causes people to get ear pain, TMJ pain, and headaches, he says.

But even though over-the-ear headphones have a band around your head, they may not be the cause of your pounding headache. With thats a little less likely to happen, because youre not putting something into that hole, he explains. With something that goes into the ear hole, youre making kind of an airtight seal, and something that goes over your entire ear wont be as tight. Theres more of a space for air and humidity exchange.

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Accidentally Swallowing The Airpods

If you have not already heard of the hilarious news Someone accidentally swallowed an AirPod during sleep. Thankfully, the AirPod came out naturally from behind and it still works perfectly If not smelling a little funky. As funny as this may sound, this can actually be a dangerous situation. Imagine choking on an AirPod in the middle of the night? Not fun.

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Do Airpods Cause Headaches

Now, hundreds of AirPods users are taking to online forums to complain that the headphones are causing headaches.

Last month, a user took to the Apple Communities page to warn other people about this problem, and since then, nearly 200 other users reported to have the same issue on that post alone.

The Airpods owner wrote that shortly after buying and using the headphones, they began experiencing strong pressure around the ears and head. This is something theyve only noticed with Apples headphones, rather than other brands.

I dont have this issue while using wired headphones, but I DO have this problem if I keep an iPhone next to my head while talking. Normally, I use wired headphones and keep the phone away from my head for this very reason. I had also experienced this type of pain/pressure/headache while using bluetooth headsets in the past, but never to the intense level caused by the airpods, they wrote.

The commenter believes that the Bluetooth technology is to blame, although theres no indication from Apple that this may be the case. I can only speculate that this has something to do with bluetooth signal, or in the case of the phone, cellular signal, which Ive either become hypersensitive to from years of use, or worse, they wrote.

What Is Vertigo Or Dizziness

Vertigo can be referred to a sense of feeling off balance or dizziness. An individual with vertigo will have a sense that their surrounding environment or head is spinning or moving. It is often associated with a range of health conditions in the sensory nerve pathway, brain or inner ear. Also, it can be long-term and temporary, and it can happen to anybody at any age.

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How Often Should You Clean Your Airpods And Earbuds

• Experts say using AirPods and earbuds can lead to health issues such as excessive earwax, ear pain, and tinnitus.
• They say its important to let your ear canals ventilate after using these devices.
• Experts also recommend regularly cleaning and disinfecting these earpieces.

With our efforts to practice proper personal hygiene in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there are still everyday items many of us are neglecting to keep clean.

Experts say AirPods and earbuds are often overlooked when it comes to routine cleaning, and this can increase health risks to the users.

Excess earwax, ear pain, tinnitus , and fungal and yeast infections are potential consequences of not cleaning your earbuds.

However, experts note that protecting your ear health is quick and easy once you know the basics of earbud care.

The Best Ways To Clean Your Airpods And Other Earbuds

Apple has a few suggestions for the right way to clean your AirPods. One method is using a disinfecting or alcohol wipe to clean the exterior surfaces — but do not use it on the speaker mesh. If you use any liquids to clean your earbuds, dry them completely before use.

For the microphone and speaker meshes, use a dry cotton swab and a soft-bristled brush to gently wipe away dirt. Don’t press too hard, since you don’t want to push the wax through the mesh. It would be nearly impossible to get it out from there.

CNET contributor Matt Elliott suggests using Fun-Tak to remove stubborn leftover earwax. To do so, rub the Fun-Tak together to warm it up and then press it against the speaker. You can then use a wooden toothpick to scrape off anything stuck to the sides of the speaker hollow.

If you want to stick with only Apple products, the giant tech company released its own Polishing Cloth, which costs $19 and has a compatibility list. While AirPods don’t appear to be on the list of products compatible with a cloth, it could still be useful for hard-core Apple fans wanting to give their earbuds a shine. Otherwise, you might seek out a basic microfiber cloth for external dusting.

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Can Airpods Pro Be Used As Hearing Protection Using A Pressure Equalizing Vent System

Airpods Pro is a revolutionary hearing protection device which is also known as iPods because it uses an acoustic transducer gel that when placed over the top of your ear provides an ultrasound like sensation which blocks out external noise and allows only the internal sounds to come through.

The device is made up of a special foam earpad and two earphones which are also designed to block out external noise but to give you excellent hearing protection.

Its an amazing technology that has been designed to help protect your hearing. I know how difficult it is for me to concentrate in meetings and on business trips when I have to shout to get attention from other people and I always end up missing important comments because of my inability to hear well.

Another great thing about this product is the Airpods Pro can be used as normal hearing aid and be used for long term with no need for replacement.

It is fully adaptable so you can use it in any situation.

Because it is so versatile, it will allow you to enjoy your life without the noise from external sources such as conversations or noisy environments.

Its a revolutionary product that uses the power of air to create a pressure equalizing filter which works to provide superior noise reduction technology for active people such as pilots, mechanics, artists, cyclists and so on.