Kids who have trauma to the outside of the ear with swelling and bruising need to see a doctor right away. If blood collects and blocks flow to the cartilage, doctors must do surgery to drain it to prevent scarring cauliflower ear. Most traumatic eardrum injuries eventually heal on their own. But all should be checked by an otolaryngologist ear, nose, and throat specialist, or ENT.
Sometimes, eardrum injuries don't heal with time and need to be patched surgically tympanoplasty. Vestibular therapy can help kids who have balance problems. This special type of physical therapy uses exercises to help kids with balance skills and coordination. If there's a concern, your doctor might refer you to an ENT or an audiologist to figure out what's going on.
Reviewed by: William J. Parkes, IV, MD. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. How Do Ear Injuries Happen? Here are some common causes of ear injuries and how they can affect kids: Cuts , scrapes, burns , or frostbite. Kids and teens can have serious or permanent hearing loss called acoustic trauma or noise-induced hearing loss if they: are exposed to very loud noises, like a gunshot, firecracker, or explosion are around loud noise for a long time, like lawn mowers, power tools, farm equipment, loud sporting events, etc.
This is one of the chief causes of this type of preventable hearing loss. Ear injuries can affect kids in different ways. Depending on whether they hurt one or both ears, kids with ear injuries that affect balance may have symptoms like: falling or stumbling a lot clumsiness vertigo a sudden feeling of spinning or whirling that feels like moving while sitting or standing feeling unsteady, "woozy," or disoriented feeling dizzy or lightheaded vision problems like bouncing eyesight or blurriness called oscillopsia [ah-sih-LOP-see-uh] trouble going up stairs or standing up without falling problems walking staggering while walking, walking with legs too far apart, or trouble walking in the dark or over uneven areas nausea or vomiting headaches extreme tiredness How Are Ear Injuries Treated?
How long hearing or balance problems last and how they're treated will depend on: what part of the ear was hurt what caused the injury how severe it is Minor injuries usually cause temporary problems. Kids with significant hearing loss may need: listening therapy with an audiologist hearing specialist a hearing aid. These can fit inside or behind the ear and make sounds louder. An audiologist adjusts them so that the sound coming in is amplified enough to let a child hear it well.
Some classrooms have these to improve hearing in group or noisy environments. However, long or repeated exposure to sounds at or above 85 dBA can cause hearing loss. The louder the sound, the shorter the amount of time it takes for NIHL to happen. Your distance from the source of the sound and the length of time you are exposed to the sound are also important factors in protecting your hearing.
A good rule of thumb is to avoid noises that are too loud, too close, or last too long. To understand how loud noises can damage our hearing, we have to understand how we hear. Hearing depends on a series of events that change sound waves in the air into electrical signals. Our auditory nerve then carries these signals to the brain through a complex series of steps. Most NIHL is caused by the damage and eventual death of these hair cells. They are gone for good.
When you are exposed to loud noise over a long period of time, you may slowly start to lose your hearing. Because the damage from noise exposure is usually gradual, you might not notice it, or you might ignore the signs of hearing loss until they become more pronounced.
Over time, sounds may become distorted or muffled, and you might find it difficult to understand other people when they talk or have to turn up the volume on the television. The damage from NIHL, combined with aging, can lead to hearing loss severe enough that you need hearing aids to magnify the sounds around you to help you hear, communicate, and participate more fully in daily activities.
NIHL can also be caused by extremely loud bursts of sound, such as gunshots or explosions, which can rupture the eardrum or damage the bones in the middle ear. This kind of NIHL can be immediate and permanent. Loud noise exposure can also cause tinnitus —a ringing, buzzing, or roaring in the ears or head.
Hearing loss and tinnitus can occur in one or both ears. Sometimes exposure to impulse or continuous loud noise causes a temporary hearing loss that disappears 16 to 48 hours later. You might wonder whether loud noises can rupture an eardrum.
A sudden very loud noise can cause an eardrum to tear or rupture. The noise intensity to rupture an eardrum would have to be very loud, usually decibels or more. This would correspond to the sound intensity of a gunshot at close range, fireworks or extremely loud music. Although the eardrum will heal, damage to the inner ear is often permanent. Some people who suffer inner ear damage due to sudden, intense noise exposure also suffer from ongoing tinnitus or ringing of the ears.
Protect your ears when you might be exposed to loud noises — it could save your hearing. Take our hearing health survey right now and start your journey to better hearing! Make informed decisions on the purchase of your next hearing aid device!
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