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I'm a teacher in the UK and was on strike today (long story, see here for more details).

I joined my colleagues on the protest rally. We marched for an hour and then rallied in the city centre for speeches. During the walk, many whistles, hooters, and other noise making devices were in use (including by me!)

Getting to the point: I now have the worst tinnitus I have ever experienced! I didn't even consider taking hearing protection (I keep ear plugs for various situations) before leaving the house.

Here's hoping I haven't suffered any permanent damage. Anyone got any experience of noise induced hearing loss?

Here's hoping I haven't suffered any permanent damage.

Sorry, but you did. While you might not notice it, whenever you have ringing in your ears from noise exposure, you have suffered a degree of permanent nerve damage.

You loose hearing range as you age naturally, loud noise exposure only accelerates the process.

Snap,..i would expect a teacher to be up on this...

ps...a great deal of shouting at the end of nearly every war...
If you were lucky enough to survive, the guns going off beside you(your ranks) made for certain hearing defect.

I work in the steel industry...electric arc furnace is right up there with jet engines...not wearing protection is not an option.

mdk77777 wrote:

Snap,..i would expect a teacher to be up on this...

Yeah - good point; it's not something I've ever needed to know (except "loud noise damages hearing"!) but I think I might learn a little more about it

And keep a pair of earplugs in my bag!

The good news is that if you are normally diligent about hearing protection, one day's slip is probably not going to result in any significant hearing loss (above and beyond your natural trajectory of hearing loss with age). If you're lucky, you may have only experienced a "temporary threshold shift" in your hearing, of which the tinnitus is symptomatic, resulting only in temporary hair cell damage. As such, these physical stimuli receptor cells will probably recover/repair very nearly to 100% of what they were, if not precisely 100%.

Any loud noise damages your hearing, but your ears will probably recover well enough from a single incident that it won't be all that noticeable.

I wear ear plugs when I do cafeteria duty at school.

mdk77777 wrote:

Here's hoping I haven't suffered any permanent damage.

Sorry, but you did. While you might not notice it, whenever you have ringing in your ears from noise exposure, you have suffered a degree of permanent nerve damage.

Acute noise-induced hearing loss isn't caused through nerve damage so much as damage to the physical receptor cells (hair cells) in your cochlea that relay sound pressure stimuli to the auditory nerve.

Rest your ears for a spell -- avoid loud noises, or even moderate noises that persist for an extended period, and get a good night's rest for the next few days. Hopefully, the damage is minor as suggested by the others.

However, don't be surprised if the tinitus persists for a few days, possibly even 'loud' enough to interfere with sleep. Also note that in the future, it may come back in some measure when you are ill or poorly rested.