If you’ve been in a car accident, your first reaction is probably one of shock. When that wears off, you check yourself for injuries and realize you have ear trauma that’s not obvious from the outside.
One common symptom is tinnitus, or ringing in your ears. Any ongoing phantom noise or auditory sensation can be considered tinnitus and may occur at a variety of pitches, volumes, and times during your day.
You may have ear ringing in one, both, or alternating ears. The sound may vary in tone and type, interfering with your life and causing stress.
It’s estimated that about 10% of people develop tinnitus when they also have another car accident injury, like whiplash. Approximately 90% of people with tinnitus also have some degree of hearing loss.
In this article, we’ll cover the main causes and symptoms of tinnitus and related conditions. We’ll also help you understand what you can do about tinnitus in terms of receiving proper medical care and pursuing accident compensation from the person who caused your car crash and resulting ear problems.
What Causes Tinnitus in Car Accidents?
When people hear noises without any sources, they may be suffering from tinnitus. This ring in the ears sound often affects both ears, but sometimes is found in just one ear or comes and goes between both ears.
Tinnitus is a common problem after car crashes and usually arises either due to physical trauma to the ear or extreme noise that impacts how the ears continue to function. Physical head injuries can cause acoustic trauma, tinnitus, or hearing problems and may be triggered during or long after an accident.
Neck injuries are also examples of injuries that can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss or ringing in the ears. Although the injured person may focus on an injury like whiplash at first, they later realize that ear ringing has become a persistent problem. Additional examples are listed below.
Most Common Causes of Ringing in Ear After Car Accident
Seek medical attention for ringing in the ears or serious hearing problems and tell your doctor about the injuries you sustained in the car accident. You may need a hearing test and other treatment from medical professionals who have the training it takes to connect your tinnitus to your injuries.
Here are some of the most common causes of injuries related to tinnitus after a car crash.
Loud Noise
Exposure to the loud noises of a car accident can be enough to trigger ringing in the ears due to damage to the tiny ear bones deep within the middle ear. This is known as acoustic trauma and it’s related to both temporary and permanent hearing loss in one or both ears.
From the screeching tires and brakes to the sound of metal crashing on metal, the sound of a car crash can be quite loud. Other loud sounds include the airbags deploying, people screaming, truck horns blowing, and emergency warnings activating.
Sometimes, such noise can be loud enough to rupture an eardrum or fracture ear bones. The sounds of an accident can also be emotionally traumatizing, leaving someone with long-term fears or even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Head Injury or Traumatic Brain Injury
Any injury to one or both ears involving the ear bone can cause ringing sounds in the ears, as can injuries to the skull that affect the ear’s structure or ability to continue hearing clearly. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a type of head trauma that affects hearing by destroying the physical integrity of the brain or impeding the pathways the brain needs to keep the ears functioning normally.
Concussions are mild forms of TBIs. They’re a form of non-permanent brain damage that usually resolves fairly quickly with proper treatment, even when you have ringing sounds in your ears.
Is a tinnitus related concussion permanent? Generally, no. However, you should act quickly with medical care to prevent your concussion from becoming something more serious.
You don’t necessarily have broken bones when you have a head injury or ear injury from a car accident. Your injuries may be internal injuries that are invisible to the naked eye. Only qualified medical professionals can diagnose head and ear trauma, which is why seeking medical attention is so important.
Neck Injury Including Whiplash
As with head trauma, injuries to the neck or spine that damage nerves can affect hearing and cause ringing in the ears. Whiplash injury is a specific type of neck injury that can often have a delayed onset of symptoms and is known to cause tinnitus by jarring the skull and brain as the head is thrown back and forth, along with the neck.
Whiplash injuries are common in head-on collisions and rear-end collisions, as are other injuries to the neck and spine. You may need diagnostic imaging tests to determine what type of whiplash injury, neck damage, or spinal cord injury you are experiencing since the car accident. Tell your doctors about the ringing sounds and any ear pain and discuss how it could be related to your neck injuries.
Restricted Blood Flow
Restricted blow flow can cause many health problems, including oxygen depletion that causes a short-term or long-term sensation of ringing in the ears. Any injury to an artery or vein in the head or neck could result in tinnitus requiring medical attention and care.
Stress
It goes without saying that a car accident can be stressful, and stress can create changes in blood pressure that result in the sensation of ringing in the ears. Tinnitus ear ringing is also linked to other health conditions that worsen with stress, like diabetes, migraines, anemia, and high blood pressure that needs medication and monitoring.
Car crash related tinnitus may aggravate an underlying injury, or it may be a reaction to the stress or loud noises from the crash. If you suffer from stress-based tinnitus after a car accident, it is important to seek medical attention for a full workup to understand and address your symptoms.
Ear Infections
You might not associate an ear infection with a car accident, but infections are surprisingly common after car accidents. Any damage to the ear canal or intrusion by a foreign object can result in a painful ear infection that causes constant ringing in the ears.
How Do Car Accidents Cause Ear Injuries and Tinnitus?
A car crash can involve extremely loud sounds, plus physical damage to your body. One moment you’re driving along as usual, and the next, you’re hearing the ears-splitting sounds of a truck horn, metal scraping, brakes screeching, and the airbag going off in a loud boom.
Any of these causes can result in tinnitus. Ear ringing may occur when sounds exceed ear pain thresholds between 100 and 150 decibels. Airbag explosions are similar to gunshots or airplane landings, which can be around 160 decibels or more.
You don’t have to be severely injured to have ear damage or tinnitus. Even with minimal injuries, the impact can be painful for the human body. A doctor can diagnose tinnitus and determine whether the physical forces or loud sounds of the car crash are causing your health problems.
Can Whiplash Cause Tinnitus in a Car Accident?
Whiplash is common after a car accident and may be the reason you’re experiencing tinnitus. Whiplash occurs when the neck sways suddenly forward and backward, commonly from a rear-end or side-impact collision.
Approximately 80% to 90% of people who acquire tinnitus mostly recover within a year or two of the accident, but up to 56% of tinnitus sufferers still have some symptoms five years later. Many also develop late whiplash symptoms that include headaches, neck problems, and hearing loss with or without tinnitus.
Beware of the late-onset effect of delayed symptoms. Sometimes, victims of automobile accidents don’t notice or develop symptoms of tinnitus until days or weeks after accidents.
Stay vigilant for any ringing sound and report your symptoms to your doctor as soon as possible. Save your medical records to start building a case for accident compensation.
What Are the Common Symptoms of Tinnitus After Car Accidents?
Tinnitus symptoms can vary dramatically from individual to individual. The sounds of ear ringing can vary widely and while some people may experience it as a ringing sound, others hear a buzzing, dripping, roaring, humming, clicking, hissing, squealing, whistling, or they feel tingling sensations that they perceive as sounds.
When you feel the following symptoms following a car accident, seek medical treatment immediately.
Most Common Symptoms of Car Accident Tinnitus
- Roaring or pulsing sensations
- Neck discomfort with ears ringing
- Buzzing or crackling sounds
- Loss of hearing
- Foggy thinking
Keep in mind that tinnitus symptoms can also masquerade as other conditions, like whiplash or a concussion. What first feels like neck pain may progress to deep pain in the ears after a car accident. Eventually, you may notice whooshing or whistling sounds which are the first signs of tinnitus.
Can Trauma Tinnitus Go Away?
Minor hearing loss or tinnitus from acoustic injuries is generally temporary and disappears within about 18 to 24 hours. However, many tinnitus cases are more serious, and the difference between minor and severe symptoms is best evaluated by a medical professional.
Some people experience ringing symptoms for months or years, and full recovery may take a very long time. No medical treatment is guaranteed to heal tinnitus. Eventually, some types of tinnitus will become permanent.
If you suffer from your ears ringing after a car accident and the injury does not resolve itself, you may have an overlooked tinnitus injury. While it is generally a temporary symptom of some other condition, it can also become chronic, especially for those who suffer other conditions like hearing loss or traumatic neck or head injuries.
Tinnitus can result in additional negative complications beyond hearing odd sounds in the ears. Tinnitus has been known to cause all of the following health issues.
Health Issues From Tinnitus After a Car Accident
Go to the emergency room if you were injured in a car accident. Even after you receive treatment, continue to be watchful for additional, ongoing symptoms of acoustic injury.
Tinnitus is associated with all of the following health problems:
- Sleep problems
- Fatigue
- Trouble concentrating
- Memory problems
- Problems with balance
- Dizziness
- Headaches
- Stress
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Irritability
- Chronic pain
- New variations of ears ringing
How Does Airbag Deployment Cause Tinnitus?
Airbags are vital car safety features that have been in use since their invention in the early 1950s and became required by law in most states in the late 1990s. While modern airbags are highly effective at saving lives and preventing car accident injuries, airbag deployment also creates an extremely loud sound.
The loud noise caused by airbags can cause immediate and delayed hearing problems including deafness and tinnitus. The noise produced by the airbag deployment during the expansion is so loud, it’s sometimes compared to hearing a gunshot at close range.
The airbag is often the loudest sound in an accident. A typical car crash is about 145 decibels but airbag deployment sounds can be 165 decibels or more.
Does Tinnitus From Airbag Go Away?
Airbag-induced physical trauma from a car accident can be temporary or permanent and has long-term consequences. You may have acute tinnitus or chronic tinnitus that won’t go away, even after you build up hefty medical bills from trying to address your injuries.
There is currently no cure for permanent tinnitus, which is cold comfort to car accident victims. You may be facing years of experiencing ringing, ear pain, hearing loss, and other effects from the loud noises of an airbag in a motor vehicle accident.
Why Do My Ears Ring After Driving?
Long after an auto accident, you could continue to experience pain or ringing in your ears whenever you take a car trip. It might even happen when you travel by air, train, and other forms of transportation.
Any activities that involve loud noises might be very unpleasant for you. This could be a long-term effect of tinnitus, neck pain, or even blood vessel disorders that can arise following car accidents.
Tinnitus affects people in various ways, including resurfacing when they do something involving loud noises in their daily lives. Medical treatment can address your ongoing symptoms and get to the bottom of your ringing sensations from driving, but there is no cure-all for persistent tinnitus.
Can You Sue for Tinnitus or Hearing Loss After a Car Accident?
A serious ear injury or tinnitus may result in impairment because it can hinder one’s ability to perform household tasks, socialize, and enjoy life. If someone has ringing ears from an automobile crash, they may be able to sue the at-fault driver to recover any damages sustained.
A key component of obtaining a fair car accident settlement is the restitution of damages you suffered in the crash. The accident caused medical bills and other losses the injured victim shouldn’t have to handle on their own. An insurance company doesn’t always pay for these costs without legal action holding them responsible for making payment.
Lawsuit for Tinnitus
A personal injury lawsuit allows you to work within the court system to pursue maximum compensation for your injuries. Working with a personal injury lawyer, you start a lawsuit to place the responsibility on the person who caused the accident and try to secure a judgment against them in a court of law.
Settlement for Tinnitus
Not all tinnitus cases end in personal injury lawsuits. In fact, most end in an out-of-court injury settlement. The insurance company and other parties agree on a fair settlement for the injured person’s costs of tinnitus treatment, other injuries, lost wages, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, and more.
Can I Get a Free Consultation About Car Accident Tinnitus?
A free initial consultation helps you understand your options and learn more about the main routes to maximum compensation for your injuries and losses. Personal injury lawyers offering free consultations understand that you should be fairly compensated without an expensive up-front payment.
McCoy & Sparks offers free consultations for people in Central Kentucky who have painful ears after a car accident, tinnitus related concussion, neck pain, and other injuries. You deserve a full and fair settlement or judgment against the person who has caused so much pain and trauma in your life.
Start Your Personal Injury Claim for Tinnitus – McCoy & Sparks, Personal Injury Lawyer
If you or a loved one has suffered a car accident resulting in chronic tinnitus affecting your life and livelihood, you may be qualified to seek compensation. Contacting a personal injury attorney to discuss your case with a risk-free consultation can be the first step to finally getting your life back.
Our qualified personal injury lawyers will work to investigate your case, calculate your damages, and discuss your options for pursuing a claim for injury compensation. We’ve seen many tinnitus cases where injured people receive significant compensation for the wide-ranging losses they have experienced due to a loud and traumatic car accident.
Recognized as one of Central Kentucky’s best law firms for more than a decade, McCoy & Sparks works to help people in trouble. We represent thousands of clients in Central Kentucky focusing on providing outstanding service and delivering superior results. We care about your recovery.
In a tinnitus car accident case, our goal is to develop a strategy that best serves your personal needs, drawing upon our negotiation and courtroom skills to help you reach a result where you are fairly compensated. Our goal is to be your partner in the process and help you feel capable of reaching the result you deserve.
We start by getting to know you and asking the basic questions about personal injury claims and your car accident involving tinnitus. Then we’ll explain your legal options, giving you the pros and cons of each choice so that you will feel empowered to make fully informed decisions. You owe us nothing unless we recover compensation for you.
Make the right call to 844-4KY-WINS for a risk-free consultation with one of our attorneys today.