Can a Single Dog Bark Near Ear Cause Hearing Damage or Make Tinnitus Worse?

So last night my two dogs were sitting on either side of me and out of nowhere my older dog looked over across my lap at the younger dog and unleashed an extremely loud, high pitched bark. Just one, like a warning. She is a 25 pound mini Australian Shepherd.

Question here is, can a single dog bark like that (especially being high pitched, not sure if the pitch of the noise matters?) either cause hearing damage, or cause/worsen tinnitus on its own? Also, is it only decibel level that would impact damage to ear or also the pitch? For example, would a sound at X decibel level cause more/less damage if it's higher pitched as opposed to a lower pitch, or is decibel level the only thing that matters?

I feel like my somatic tinnitus has been more noticeable since this happened and am scared that some damage was caused, and it's really upsetting because I felt so good the past couple of days since I started working on jaw stretches and now it's back to how it was before (but, maybe I slept with poor posture or with neck bent so I woke up with aggravated ringing and it has nothing to do with her bark, too many variables to truly know).

 

@Slambonie, theoretically yes, the dog bark could cause damage if it's loud/close enough. A lot also depends on you, how much damage you already have, if you have hyperacusis, etc.

But just from the damage perspective, it would probably have to be directed right into your ear. Sound is just pressure waves. Higher frequencies tend to do more damage as they have higher energy. Also, the receptors for higher frequency sounds are closer to the outer portion of the inner ear, so they are also more likely to be damaged first by sound.

Most accounts I've seen of very short, sudden sounds causing big problems show up very quickly or instantly. You could be experiencing a spike from this incident, but it is likely to go back to baseline.

 

Yes.

 

Yup, sure can.

Dog barks reach in the 95-100 dB range.

 

I was living with a dog who would bark in a very high pitch, sometimes in front of me, and I think it was making my tinnitus/hyperacusis worse when I was exposed to it, but honestly can't really tell because I had an ear infection too so almost impossible to tell what was causing the issues.

There's a big psychological part to tinnitus and hyperacusis so if you are believing that this actually made you worse, then you could just be making it worse with those types of thoughts, in fact, those types of thoughts are very likely to be making any tinnitus worse.

If you adopt the mindset that this did not cause any harm, really, it's very unlikely that it caused any long term damage, then you would perhaps start to feel better.

Of course it might have actually spiked your symptoms too but that always eases eventually.

 

If the bark's a short burst, I guess it depends on the distance, but I would not say it causes any permanent damage.

 

Dogs are like kids, they get excited, scream, jump around. Love them. Soon as a dog barks, they get the first one, then fingers in my ears!

 

It is highly improbable that a simple dog bark can damage your hearing. You will be fine! Obviously some people's ears are more sensitive than others'. Two people can be at the same concert, one get tinnitus, the other one not. But it's very unlikely a dog bark damaged your hearing.

Some scientific papers show that NAC, Magnesium + vitamin ACE can help protect your hearing.

If you are worried, you can have an audiogram to see if you damaged your hearing.

Stay calm. Hearing damage is a combination of decibels and time of exposure.

Best regards.

 

Unexpected loud sounds can trigger inflammation in the middle ear, even if it doesn't lead to cochlear damage.

Source: An Integrative Model Accounting for the Symptom Cluster Triggered After an Acoustic Shock

 

It's certainly possible, at night when it's quiet, I can hear dogs barking from what sounds like a mile away. Best thing to do is find a good home for the dogs and get a cat.

No worries there, as long as you know your place. The old saying is that dogs have owners and cats have slaves. As long as you know your role, which is To Serve The Cat, you should be fine. My wife used to say about our cat "She is worse than a baby! When the cat is happy everyone is happy. But when she is unhappy you better believe everyone in the house will be unhappy".

So I got rid of the wife and kept the cat. You have to have standards.

 

Why people suffering with tinnitus have an animal in their homes capable of producing 100 dB at any time is beyond me.

 

@Nobody19, that was an interesting article, thank you for posting.

@Slambonie, how are you now?

 

It was a dog bark that I believe was the leading straw that broke, or damaged, inner ear hair cells for me when I had my really bad middle ear infection. It’s like the bark vibrated my round window enough that the infection went into the inner ear and did its damage. Thankfully, my dog rarely barks, it was the neighbor’s dog that was right next to me. My point is if you already have inflammation of any kind, a loud bark could definitely make its negative mark, imo.