Here are 8 stories that defined the hearing loss culture, from HearingLikeMe.com.

This year was all about breaking down stigmas around hearing loss and showing how cool hearing aids are! More celebrities opened up about their heairng loss, new designs and fashions highlighted hearing aids and new research inspired us to keep talking about hearing loss.

This year, hearing loss articles were inspirational, informative and interesting! Catch up on what you’ve missed with the top 10 hearing loss stories of 2017:

Cotton swabs may seem harmless enough, but they can be dangerous when used to clean your ears. Although some people swear by using cotton swabs (Q-Tips™) to remove excess earwax and debris from their ear canals, medical experts will warn you not to try it.

This terrible affliction could severely damage my quality of life, but I can’t sacrifice the thing that makes me happiest

I have not been able to hear silence for about four years now. The high-pitched whining that you may temporarily hear after you leave a gig is, for me, a permanent fixture. The worst thing about this is that regardless of the ear protection that I use religiously when DJing these days, I will never be able to repair the damage that’s been done. In fact, if I continue to DJ, my condition will deteriorate: I find this terrifying.

Using genetic tools in mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have identified a pair of proteins that precisely control when sound-detecting cells, known as hair cells, are born in the mammalian inner ear. The proteins, described in a report published June 12 in eLife, may hold a key to future therapies to restore hearing in people with irreversible deafness.