The most common compliant of all hearing aid users who have noise induced hearing loss is they still cannot hear in their favorite social settings. In general, our world is very noisy. Living in New York City is no exception. People who reside in NYC actually are exposed to more noise than people who live in smaller and/or rural cities in America. It’s no wonder noise induced hearing loss is one of the most common occupational disorders (Nelson, Nelson, Concha-Barrientos, & Fingerhut, 2005).
Researchers are actively investigating drugs to prevent and treat hearing loss. Therefore the number of people who have hearing loss due to noise exposure could be changing with the development of a new otoprotective medication that is entering clinical trials under the oversight of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through the Investigational New Drug application process. Possibly in the new few years, we will discover one or more of these otoprotective agents will succeed within the clinical trials and become approved by the FDA for the prevention of hearing loss!
Currently, there are no FDA approved drugs to prevent or treat any type of hearing loss or tinnitus.
