There are a number of reasons why someone might experience hearing loss. Age is one reason, working in a loud environment is another, and sometimes it’s caused by a disease. However, it can also be something that is caused by injury and trauma. With that in mind, we’re going to look at the five most common injuries that can lead to hearing loss.
1. Head Injury
When someone gets hit in the head suddenly and hard, it can move around so much that the brain can bruise, swell or bleed in one spot (brain hemorrhage). This can hurt a number of important parts of the auditory system, which is how we hear. Among these are:
- Outer ear, the part of the ear that you can see the most, the ear canal and the ear drum.
- Ossicles are three small bones in the middle ear that are joined together.
- Cochlea, which is in the inner ear and is full of fluid and has a lot of hair cells.
Any of these important parts of the ear can be hurt by a head injury: the eardrum, the ossicles, the hair cells, the blood flow, the auditory pathways, etc. This makes it harder for the brain to take in and process sound waves, making it harder to understand sounds.
2. Whiplash
Whiplash is a common injury that can be caused when your neck and head are abruptly moved back and forth, and it is often associated with a car accident. This abrupt movement causes damage to the muscles and soft tissues that are located around your neck. Rear-ending accidents are the most prevalent cause of whiplash.
The severity of a whiplash injury determines whether or not the inner ear structures are damaged and whether or not the patient develops hearing loss as a result.
3. A Ruptured Eardrum
A ruptured eardrum might suddenly occur. You can have a severe pain in your ear, or you might find that an earache that you’ve had for a long time disappears all of a sudden. There is also the possibility that you may not notice any symptoms despite the fact that your eardrum has burst.
A burst eardrum, sometimes called a perforated eardrum or a tympanic membrane perforation, can lead to issues such as middle ear infections and hearing loss. It is possible that surgery may be necessary in order to restore the damage to the eardrum. But in most cases, and particularly if you take care to protect your ear, a ruptured eardrum will mend on its own within a couple of months without the need for therapy.
Having an ear infection is one of the most common things that can cause the eardrum to burst. When there is an infection in the middle ear, pressure builds up and presses on the eardrum. When the pressure is too high, it can make a hole in the eardrum. When this happens, the pain and pressure from the infection may stop all of a sudden, and pus may drain from the ear.
A ruptured eardrum can also be caused by poking it with a foreign object, like a cotton swab or bobby pin that was used to clean wax out of the ear canal. When kids put things like sticks or small toys in their ears, they can sometimes hurt their own eardrums.
4. Frostbite
Frostbite on the outside of the ear can hurt a lot! When this sensitive skin is exposed to very cold temperatures in the winter, it can do a lot of damage to the skin tissue. Damage like this can make the skin harden, blister, or become discolored. Even though frostbite is usually avoidable, it needs to be treated right away in order to prevent a serious infection which can lead to hearing loss.
Keep these painful conditions around your ears from happening by keeping your ears covered and away from cold, wet and windy conditions. This winter, you need earmuffs, hats and hoods on your winter jackets to keep your ears warm and dry.
5. Traumatic Noise
You might not be able to hear as well after leaving a very loud event, like a concert or football game. You might not be able to hear whispers, sounds might sound muffled, or your ears might ring. Most people can hear normally again in a few hours to a few days. This is because, like blades of grass, the hair cells will bend more when the sound is louder. But after some time, they will become straight again.
But if too many hair cells were damaged by loud noise, some of them would die. Many hair cells will die after being exposed to loud sounds over and over again. This can make it harder for you to understand speech in noisy places over time. If hearing loss keeps getting worse, it can get hard to understand even in quiet places.
For more information and to speak with an expert audiologist, contact GL Wyeno Hearing Specialists PC at (402) 463-2431.
