PURPOSE: To verify the occurrence of hearing disorders in violinists and if there is an association with the more exposed ear. METHODS: Subjects were ten violinists, eight female and two male, with ages between 17 and 69, who constituted the Study Group. They were matched according to age and gender with non-musicians with no hearing complaints. Subjects were assessed by pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry, acoustic immitance measures, transient evoked otoacoustic emissions, and distortion product otoacoustic emissions, preceded by otoscopy and anamnesis. The exclusion criterion was altered tympanometry. RESULTS: There was higher occurrence of bilateral tinnitus in the Study Group. It was observed that musicians do not use hearing protector during training and presentations. In pure tone audiometry, there was no difference between thresholds obtained for both groups. It was found higher occurrence of hearing disorders in the left ear, but this difference was not significant. In the transient evoked otoacoustic emission and distortion product otoacoustic emission, there was also no difference between groups, neither in the comparison between ears. CONCLUSION: It was observed higher occurrence of hearing disorders in the group of violinists, with higher percentage of alterations in the left ear. However, the difference between right and left ears was not significant.
Hearing; Otoacoustic emissions, spontaneous; Music; Hearing loss; Noise, occupational
