Noise Trauma and Ear Ringing

It is one of the greatest feelings to be able to go to a concert to see your favorite bands play. The only problem with this is that when the concert is long over, you may still have the ringing in your ears that you were not able to shut off right away. There so many types of tinnitus that a person could have and when it comes to loud music, most of the time it is ringing in your ears, or a whine or a squeal that that you can hear. This condition can be very annoying above anything else. Rarely will you have lasting effects from going to a loud concert. The ringing should subside after a few days. Some may also describe this as being a sound like a static television, known as "white noise".

After attending a loud concert it is most likely that you will do some damage to your ears temporarily. This can happen from being too close to the speakers or the audiences roars. Inside your ear canal you have hairs and if they become damaged in any way then you may experience some ringing due to this excessive noise. When you interpret sound in your brain it has to go through the ears first; the sounds pass to your auditory area from nerve signals produced by these hairs. Usually the cells are only triggered by sound but in the event that they become damaged, it is a whole new story; they become able to fire on their own. This is what causes the ears to ring. Everyone needs down time so enjoy your concerts a few times a year and the ringing will lessen after a few days max. There are other steps that you can take to ensure that you are protected.

If you are worried about your hearing then try some ear plugs. Many concert goers have taken measures to ensure that they do not do any damage to their hearing. You will be able to still enjoy the show, just at a healthier level. They make them so compact these days that you won't even notice them; band members have learned after years of playing that it is important to use them. Also try to find some distance between you and the speakers. Yeah, it's fun to be right there where all the noise is but you really need to reconsider this and keep back a little. Once tinnitus takes over the ears with consistent annoying ringing, it cannot be cured. If you do sustain light damage to the hairs in your ears they will take care of themselves and repair, but there is always that chance that they could break off and then you will have permanent damage. However, this usually will only happen with over exposure to loud sound. If sounds exceed 110 decibels then you most likely have permanent damage; you want to keep the level below the sound of a lawn mower which is 85 decibels. Just make sure that no matter the situation that you are in take care of your ears and use some ear plugs for protection.

I would be remiss not to include other common sources of noise-induced hearing loss. A big one is at the workplace. As required by law, a noisy work environment should undertake a sound survey to identify those areas that exceed the OSHA defined threshold. This threshold is 85 decibels measured over a time weighted average of 8 hours. Eight hours is the typical length of a workday. If the noise level exceeds this threshold,  hearing loss will likely result if the worker is chronically exposed. Hearing protection MUST be used to protect your ears in this environment. Also it is important to know that if the decibel level is for example 95 instead of 85, noise injury will occur in a much shorter period, perhaps only 4 hours. At 120 decibels, such as next to a jet engine, hearing loss can occur in minutes, not hours. So if you work in one of these environments, or you engage in noisy recreational sports, attend loud concerts, or keep boom boxes in your car you are at risk for hearing loss if you do not take appropriate precautions.