BRITAIN is three times noisier than it was 30 years ago and our hearing is suffering as a result.

Most adults get their sight checked fairly regularly, but they do not think their hearing needs the same level of attention. Although we have all had to cope with elderly relatives who are too stubborn to get a hearing aid, in today's world the age when hearing tends to deteriorate is coming down rapidly.

Any noise over 85 decibels puts your hearing at serious risk. The average rock concert is 120 decibels, a level which almost certainly causes damage - not exactly music to my ears when I go to several gigs a month.

With this in mind, and having not had a hearing test since I was seven, I jumped at the chance of being "Deaf for a Day" at Scrivens Hearing Care in Altrincham.

Hearing aid audiologist Mel Rawnsley gave me a routine hearing check, which comes in two stages - an air conduction test and a bone conduction test. The former determines how much hearing loss you have, and the latter discovers what sort of hearing loss you have, and both are assessed with a series of quiet beeps.

Mel said: "When I started this job 30 years ago, people who came here were in their seventies and eighties. Now, I get a lot more visits from people in their forties and fifties.

"Many of them used to spend several evenings a week in clubs with loud music, and it has destroyed their hearing. The odd gig is all right, but too many can cause permanent damage."

After the test, Mel blocked up my ears to recreate the sensation of deafness and then took me out into Altrincham town centre to see how I would cope.

Apart from looking pretty stupid walking around with putty in my ears, I felt spaced out and slightly unsteady on my feet. To be honest, it was quite pleasant to be able to block out much of the traffic noise and other sounds in the town - but I certainly appreciated my hearing much more when it returned.

One of the problems the exercise highlighted is that although this immediate severe hearing loss was very noticeable, most people who are hard of hearing suffered a gradual loss.

Mel said: "Many people blame everyone but themselves - they say if everyone else spoke clearly, they would be OK. They often find social situations difficult, and start to withdraw and become isolated.

"Deafness can be very isolating."

Scrivens offers free hearing checks at its branches across the country. Experts recommend that you get your hearing checked every two years.

*To mark Deaf Aware-ness Week, Trafford council has teamed up with Trafford Deaf User Group to cam-paign to get British Sign Language recognised as the UK's fourth official language.