My hubby works on the Af with apaches and gets hearing tests all of the time. Sometimes I think they just let him pass, lol. I swear he is deaf (could be just ignoring me though, haha). Anyways, it's something I take serious and there was a point where I started to have hearing problems from listening to my portable music player too much so I stopped. I don't get pain and ringing in my ears anymore. I think I may have saved myself from some hearing loss because I remember wanting to go to the doc about it. Everything seems ok now.