Listen up. “The sooner you start paying attention to your ears, the longer you’ll be without a hearing aid,” says Catherine Palmer, Ph.D., director of the Audiology and Hearing Aid Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The key is avoiding loud noises. The burst of a nearby firecracker or prolonged exposure at a rock concert can cause permanent damage that adds up. “If you can’t be heard easily by someone in the room, or if you have decent earphones and people around you hear your music, it’s too loud,” says Palmer. So lower the volume (if a song’s just too good to shush, turn the bass up and the treble down), and invest in good earplugs. The best ones, the custom-fit musicians’ type (sold at music stores and Etymotic Research, , block out up to 25 decibels, bringing a 110-decibel concert down to a safe — for three hours, anyway — 85. For unexpected blasts, you have two options: namely, your index fingers, which can shut out 15 to 20 decibels.