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Child Got Ear Pain After Getting A Loud Sound In Ear. Emergency?
my son ws playing with his karaoke machine and got the microphone too close. It made a loud sound in his ear. He then said his ear hurts, he cant hear. I did some tests (whispered in his ear)and he can hear me (he is 5 years old). Im not sure if he did something or maybe it irritated an ear infection that maybe just started? I will call his Dr. tomorrow but want to make sure its not an emergency. He is not one to cry about pain so I know it must hurt.
Thu, 22 Aug 2013
hello and welcome to HCM,
You are very clever in assessing using what we call as the whispering test to find out if he has any hearing loss!!
Any sudden loud noise can affect our ears in two ways, one it can cause what we call the acoustic trauma to even rupture the drum which may cause this acute or severe pain and also hearing loss. Secondly it can just cause a shock to the nerves of hearing in which case the pain is usually not seen but only the hearing loss.
In either case you need to definitely consult an ENT who will perform a full examination and also hearing testing as the whispering test is just a screening test.
Meanwhile till you meet your ENT make sure he is not exposed to further loud noise, avoid head bath (prevent even a small amount of water to enter the ear) and do not attempt to clean his ears
If the pain is very severe then see an emergency doctor if simple analgesic like paracetamol does not work
take care
Dr Sriram Nathan
You are very clever in assessing using what we call as the whispering test to find out if he has any hearing loss!!
Any sudden loud noise can affect our ears in two ways, one it can cause what we call the acoustic trauma to even rupture the drum which may cause this acute or severe pain and also hearing loss. Secondly it can just cause a shock to the nerves of hearing in which case the pain is usually not seen but only the hearing loss.
In either case you need to definitely consult an ENT who will perform a full examination and also hearing testing as the whispering test is just a screening test.
Meanwhile till you meet your ENT make sure he is not exposed to further loud noise, avoid head bath (prevent even a small amount of water to enter the ear) and do not attempt to clean his ears
If the pain is very severe then see an emergency doctor if simple analgesic like paracetamol does not work
take care
Dr Sriram Nathan
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