I have tinnitus, and I have more or less learned to be able to ignore it, but hearing damage is another matter - I have that too! My Doc says that damage that you do to your hearing now will probably not show up for 2 years or more (unless it is severe, like an injury). The ears have a defensive mechanism for continuous loud noises so that the ears turn their own volume down, but staccato noises like drums or gunshots cause the most direct damage because the ear's reflex cannot respond quickly enough. I was told that most hearing damage from a loud environment (like the Grumman Tracker I flew for 8 years) is induced by the vibrations that resonate in your skull! Helmets are good because they damp out the vibrations, but try wearing a helmet to your local club or in the cockpit of your Dash 8 and see what the locals think. The best solution is active noise cancelling headphones, because the computers that they are equipped with sample the sound and generate an equal and opposite wave which effectively neutralizes the sound wave and, ergo bingo, the vibration. The only true way is to avoid noisy places. Go see your grandparents who live in the country and see how great their hearing is compared to yours already. Both of my kids are in their 20s and both have some form of hearing damage from music headphones and clubs - "I'll only listen this loud 'til I need glasses..."
