Injuries that Can Cause Hearing Loss

While the most common causes of hearing loss are advanced age and exposure to loud noises, another possible cause is an injury to the head, neck or ear. In this post, we explore how certain injures can impact your hearing and what the studies show.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

If you suffer from a TBI, you can experience problems ranging from a concussion to hearing loss. Hearing loss can occur if there’s enough force to jostle the parts of the brain responsible for hearing and speech into the walls of the skull. According to one systematic review, “The studies with the highest level of evidence report a change in hearing of at least 10-15 dB across a range of frequencies in as many as 58% percent of TBI patients without bony fracture.”

Neck Injuries

Neck injuries like whiplash or a blow to the neck can similarly cause hearing loss because of the motion the brain makes against the skull. One study shows, “Twenty of the 166 ears (12%) had normal hearing and 137 ears (81.3%) showed an acoustic trauma-like hearing impairment. Eight ears (4.8%) had a hearing loss of at least 30 dB in the speech frequencies (500-2,000 Hz) and two ears (1.2%) had additional impairment in the higher frequencies. Only one ear (0.8%) had a conductive hearing loss.”

Perforated Eardrum

A perforated eardrum, or an eardrum with a tear or hole in it, can cause hearing loss because soundwaves can’t be transformed into vibrations that travel through the rest of the ear. This type of injury can result from sticking a foreign object into the ear like a cotton swab or a direct blow to the ear. In one study, researchers concluded, “The prevalence of hearing loss was significantly more in the injured ears than contralateral normal ears.”

Traumatic Noise

Any sound over 120 dB – about the volume of a fireworks show – can cause immediate pain and injury to the ears. Not only can loud sounds perforate the eardrum in rare cases, but they can also damage the inner ear’s sensory cells that convert soundwaves into electrical signals the brain interprets as sound. One study found, “The results suggest that post-noise acoustic environment influenced the degree of hearing loss and [outer hair cells] deterioration after traumatic noise exposure.”

To learn more or to schedule an appointment for a hearing test, call The Audiology Offices today.