Deer Hunting Club

The sudden onset of ringing in the ears can be very frightening. This is called tinnitus. The sounds can include chirping, hissing whistling, ringing, buzzing, and more.

People think that the sounds are in their ears, but they're not. They are in the brain.

The most frequent case of tinnitus is acoustic trauma--exposure to sound that is loud enough to damage the delicate hair cells in the inner ear. this often happens to anyone who is around loud sounds without adequate ear protection. People who are likely to do this include police personnel, military personnel, hunters, recreational shooters and factory workers.

How loud are various noises, and what levels are safe? What we typically think of as the loudness of sound is actually a reflection of sound pressure, and is measured in decibels (dB.).

A few examples of sound pressures are:

A whisper: 30 dB

Normal conversation: 45 to 60 dB

Home Vacuum Cleaner or Alarm Clock: 75 dB

Home Blender: 85 dB

Home Garbage Disposal: 90 dB

Tractor or Truck without a muffler: 90 dB

Shouting in a noisy club: 90 dB

Electric saw: 110 dB

Nightclub with live rock music: 115 dB

Shotgun blast: 150 dB

Jet aircraft, 50 meters away: 140 dB

Cannon fire, 50 ft away: 200 dB

A "normal level" of sound (below 80 dB) will not damage your hearing. Prolonged or repeated exposure to sound levels above 85 dB will damage anyone's hearing. A single exposure to sound above 135 to 140 dB may cause permanent damage to anyone's hearing.

Cells in the inner ear that receive sound are called hair cells because they appear as delicate as fine hairs under a microscope. When extremely loud sound is transmitted to these cells, they may be shaken so badly that they cannot recover, and hearing loss results. Mainly the high frequencies are lost in this situation, around 4000 CPS.

Sound vibrations occur in the environment and are transmitted via the inner ear and eighth cranial nerve as electromagnetic signals to the brain. When sound is totally absent in the environment, these brain cells search for replacement sounds, and 95% of people with normal hearing will develop tinnitus.

Brain cells that are not receiving signals from external sound being transmitted actually become so sensitive that they listen to the electromagnetic signals of nearby brain cells. They interpret these signals as strange sounds that we describe as hissing, humming, ringing, etc. Cells are damaged by loud noise exposure cannot transmit normal signals, so this sets up the ideal situation for tinnitus to develop.