Bang! If a firecracker explodes right next to us on New Year’s Eve, the noise is beyond the threshold of pain. An ENT doctor explains what to do if you suddenly hear a beeping or noise in your ear.
Going out the door at midnight and welcoming the New Year with a bang: a must for many. And it’s a strain on our ears – especially when rockets, firecrackers, etc. explode just a few meters away.
What does this do to our ears, what are the signs that it has become too much for them? Lars Stöbe is head physician at the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic at Helios University Hospital Wuppertal and gives answers in an interview.
Question: What do our ears have to endure on New Year’s Eve?
Lars Stöbe: New Year’s Eve fireworks consist of small explosions that have a very high volume and a short sound pressure. We call this impulse noise. It puts a lot of strain on the inner ear. This causes the cells’ metabolism to be overloaded and they can no longer do their work as usual.
This leads to hearing impairments, which can manifest themselves in different ways: a feeling of cotton in the ears, a hissing or beeping sound, or overall hearing loss. What you might also know when you come out of the loud disco. Severe hearing loss or even deafness is also possible, but rare.
In fact, a single firecracker fired close to the ear is enough to cause these symptoms. Then a so-called bang trauma can occur: This is the case when a sound pressure wave lasting less than two milliseconds hits the ear with over 150 decibels.
For comparison: normal speaking is 65 decibels, a jackhammer or a jet plane is 120 decibels. New Year’s Eve firecrackers can be over 140 decibels loud, although illegal firecrackers are often even louder.
If they ignite close to the ear, a so-called explosion trauma can even occur, in which the eardrum suffers mechanical damage, i.e. ruptures. But this is rare, so it is not the common case that we see in practices and clinics.
Question: What do I do if I have the feeling: “There is something wrong with my ears”?
Stöbe: These damages are usually self-limiting, as we say. This means: After a period of rest and recovery, hearing returns to normal. But firecrackers can also cause hearing damage that doesn’t go away on its own but requires further treatment.
If something has happened, I recommend: first get out of the noise. First of all, make sure you calm down, get some sleep and, if necessary, sober up. You don’t have to go to the emergency center straight away.
However, you have to differentiate: If you only have a dull feeling in your ears or a little ringing in your ears, you can certainly wait until you have it checked out. In my opinion, the next working day is enough.
However, if you can no longer hear at all, have an earache or have fluid running out of your ear, then you should see an ENT doctor straight away the following day, for example in the emergency room, to rule out the possibility of severe hearing loss or even a ruptured eardrum.
Question: How can you protect your ears well so that this doesn’t happen?
Stöbe: Hearing protection makes sense. However, simply putting some cotton wool or the earplugs that you use to help you fall asleep in your ear is probably not enough. You might be lulled into a false sense of security. It has to be professional hearing protection, like the one you might know from work.
It is also crucial that you follow the instructions for use of the firecrackers, only use legal ones and keep as much distance as possible. Distance is actually the most important thing.
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