Acoustic Trauma Caused by a Loud Crashing Sound (Lid Slamming) — How Can I Help Myself Heal?

About 5 weeks ago, I was next to some machinery, when a lid slammed shut, which resulted in ear trauma, causing muffled hearing in right ear and tinnitus. How can I help myself heal?

 

So you were close to a car crash when it happened 5 weeks ago, and it's left you with tinnitus and muffled hearing in your right ear, as a result of the acoustic trauma?

Now you might get conflicting advice with regards to how you should handle this, so here's the way I'm going to put it:

What I would do in your situation, is as follows.

• Avoid further noise exposure by:

1) Limiting how much I left home by as much as is possible.
2) Wearing hearing protection for anything noisy that happens at home (ie. vacuuming or neighbour's DIY etc.).
3) Wearing hearing protection (preferably ear defenders or foam earplugs) whenever I left home.

• Take supplements:

1) N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) (1200mg daily)
2) Magnesium (266mg daily)
3) Zinc (10mg daily)
4) Vitamin E (1200iu daily)
5) Turmeric (1500mg daily)
6) Vitamin D3 (1000iu daily)

• Quiet activities that distract me:

1) Playing video games I liked with low, or no sound (no sound for if they're noisy like FPS games for example) and no headset.
2) Watching TV/Films/"Movies" I liked with subtitles and low, or no sound (no sound for in the case of sudden loud noises in Action Films for example).
3) Reading. Comic books or novels.
4) Spending time on forums or chat rooms (getting into heated arguments etc.).

And besides all that, just wait and pray for the best.

It may disappear completely, or it may disappear only partially. But what's for sure, is that over the course of the next year, providing you don't suffer any further noise traumas, it will get better.

 

Stay away from loud noise for a while. This will help a lot. Take vitamin C, vitamin D, Magnesium Chloride, and Zinc. Maybe try NAC too. Take anti-inflammatories like Turmeric and follow a healthy diet. Ears can recover especially after a first incident but it takes a long time.

If you need it, try to get Prednisone from a doctor, this is what they prescribe for ear damage. It helps with inflammation.

 

Agree. I believe those supplements are important early on to help mitigate Glutamate excitotoxicity and allow your synapses to heal.

 

There was a day I thought I was past this, I was feeling pretty good, but yesterday after work (I'm a meat cutter) I felt distressed again. Maybe the constant fans and trying to listen to people with all the background noise is a strain now. Hope that part improves. Can't believe how long it takes to heal, life changing stuff.

 

I would go to a doctor to check if there is any structural damage to your ear (it's not clear from your description whether your ear was hit or whether it's an acoustic trauma from the crash) and do a hearing test.

What you should be doing depends on the diagnosis. I wouldn't wait too long.

Good luck!

 

When you say "long," you mean 5 weeks?

A normal otitis may take up 2 months to fully resolve. Ears are just slow.

And there's people on these forums who have suffered from all sort of hearing problems for decades

If you were involved in a car crash, go get your neck etc checked. Get some X-Ray or image tests etc.

 

Thinking of trying Sudafed decongestant for that full/liquid in the ear feeling... A good idea?

 

@Damocles, thanks for advice. I was wondering about the sensation of pressure/fullness in right ear, will that eventually subside?

I feel like there's a bubble in the ear if that makes any sense.

 

Hey again @Bry.

Yes, it will very likely fade over time (ensuring you don't expose your ears to further noise insults).

I would experience the exact same sensation (of tinnitus, fullness and muffled hearing) in my ears after loud concerts when I was younger, and these would always disappear over a variable period of time; hence why I continued attending them and destroyed my ears via cumulative damage.

 

@Damocles, thanks for replying, I really do appreciate it.

Through your experience, what was the longest you experienced those symptoms?

 

So after a standard assault on my ears, post-concert; 1 week was the average, until they would feel fully back to normal.

However in my case I was young at the time (so recovered quickly) and it was from music at concerts, a very specific and sustained category of noise trauma.

I mention this because my initial understanding was that you were in the vicinity of a car crash, but rereading your original post, I see you were actually in a car crash.

This changes things. So I would suggest you take note of what @GregCA has said above, and rule out the possibility there has been any physical damage to the ear. That said, for all I know, it is perfectly possible a single explosive trauma (like that of an airbag being deployed in a crash), and at a later age (as in, anything older than a teenager), could well cause someone to experience what you're experiencing for more than a month as standard...

My initial advice still stands though, whatever the case. Doing those things will help.

On this ▲. It's very unlikely, seeing as it followed a physical injury and/or noise trauma, that the muffled/congested feeling in your ear bears any relation to fluid trapped inside the middle-ear or a blocked Eustachian tube (these problems usually follow an infection or virus), so I doubt Sudafed or any other nasal decongestant is going to alleviate the sensation. But I don't see how trying one would cause any harm either, if you simply want to cover all bases.

 

@Damocles, I wasn’t paying attention when creating this thread. It was supposed to say loud crashing sound, not car crash. I was standing next to machinery when the lid slammed shut.

 

Hey @Bry,

As I said earlier, my case was quite different to yours in the sense that it was sustained/continuous noise trauma from loud music, as opposed to a sudden loud noise; which I think could make a significant difference to the symptoms and the periods they might be experienced for.

But in any case, I can see you would like some reassurance that what you're experiencing (especially the length of time you're experiencing it for) is normal, and that even after 5 weeks it can resolve.

Hence this question earlier:

So I've created this poll on your behalf (which you can now keep an eye on) for the purpose of collecting a greater number of answers from members of the forum, to the above question.

(You'll notice however that I've specified only the symptoms of ear fullness and muffled hearing, as tinnitus tends to be very unique to each sufferer and often variable, so votes are unlikely to give you any idea of if/when it might disappear. Also, there will already be many threads covering the subject, which you can find by using the search bar.)

Anyway @Bry, I hope you make a full recovery. But one thing I am certain of, is that over time, your symptoms will improve.

 

@Bry, I've seen some of your profile posts recently.

Just making me wonder, have you actually been to see a doctor so they can look inside your ear?

You were saying something about "swelling".

Acoustic traumas don't cause physical damage (except in cases where the ear drum ruptures).

So swelling in the ear canal could possibly mean you also have an infection.

I seriously think you should get your ears looked at as your first port of call.