Putting up a creative 4D exhibition on the function of eyes and ears with verses from the Holy Qur’an, Katara Cultural Village Foundation is offering free eye and ear checkups for people visiting its exhibition galleries this Ramadan. 
With 4D giant diagrams of ears and eyes all around them in building 18, representative audiologist and an ophthalmologist from Naseem Al Rabeeh Medical Centre and Al Jaber Opticians respectively with all the necessary equipment have set up free checkup stations. 
A large number of people visited the eyes and ears stations, along with other such free checkup points for other ailments in other buildings, where they were checked free of cost for any eyesight problems or hearing losses. “We are giving free eye checkup with all the necessary equipment available here with us. If anyone has problems with eyesight we can suggest the exact number of glasses they require,” Kishore Kumar, optometrist from Al Jaber Opticians tells Community in a chat on the opening of the exhibition and the centre here recently.
“Most of the cases with eyesight issues are being reported in children these days. It is because they are using mobile phones and tablets a lot. They are suffering from accommodative asthenopia. It can lead to reading difficulty with headaches,” says Kumar. 
It can be fixed by wearing glasses which they can suggest from Katara checkup point. Tijo Thomas, audiologist from Naseem Al Rabeeh Medical Centre is giving free hearing capability checks to people providing them with complete report based on the tests.
“A normal hearing person can hear at the level of 15 or 10 decibel. We will start from the higher levels till the level where the person can hear the tone. Based on that, we will find an average and then we will find the degree of the hearing loss,” says Thomas. 
There are three types of hearing losses, he explains. One is sensorineural hearing loss which is untreatable. It can be improved with the help of hearing aids. Second one is conductive hear loss which is a problem in the way of conduction of sound wave from the air to brain level. 
These problems can be rectified. It may vary from wax to infection. For that, Thomas says he would refer the patient to ENT department for solutions. 
The third problem with hearing problem cases is mostly a result of daily noise. It is called noise-induced hearing loss. It is a type of sensory loss. “Once we lose our hearing ability, we cannot recover it. This is why it is mandatory to do hearing check up here for every employee who is exposed to noise. So they are provided ear plugs or ear protecting devices according to the levels of difficulty,” says the audiologist. 
“I have experienced coming across patients who are more than 50 years of age having hearing problems. More than 50% of the people having hearing problems are from this group. And then we get noise-induced hearing loss patients who are exposed to noise explosion,” he adds.
The kind of noise that we experience in daily routine life, he says, would not have much effect on the hearing ability of a normal person. However, the continuous exposure for hours to noise can affect hearing. 
Use of headphone for long hours can also affect hearing but it depends on the quality of the headphones that one uses and the volume level. If the volume is above a level of 60 decibels it can induce hearing loss. And there are different types of headphones with earplugs and the normal ones. The normal headphones would not affect much but the earplugs will block the pressure that sound creates inside the ear. This can cause hearing loss, says Thomas. 
“Here at this station, I will check the hearing levels of the people coming to us. And we will issue a proper detailed report to them along with proper advice on what to do in case there are any problems found in the check,” says the audiologist. 
In cases, they need a medical practitioner’s assistance, he would refer them to ENT specialist or he would give them some hearing improvement tips according to their hearing loss level. For example, if someone is experiencing a noise-induced hearing loss, they can use ear-protecting devices like ear plugs or ear masks or they can use both if they are exposed to very high noise levels. The checkup points will be open from 7pm to 11pm everyday during Ramadan at Katara.