hearing loss after shooting range, is it permanent?

[granderson]

So i went to a shooting range yesterday, and stupidly didnt wear hearing protection.  shortly after it was pretty hard to hear quiet noises, i had it in both ears, but more in my right, after about an hour, my hearing got a bit better, my hearing was back to normal in my left ear but still not back completely in my right.  it sounds like my ear is stuffed up, if that makes sense.  like i can hear things, even quiet things pretty well, it just seem like the pitch is off slightly on some noises. that and i have a ringing noise in my right ear.  

its now been about 20 hours, and my hearing seems slightly better than last night. but very slightly if anything. and something strange is if i plug both of my ears for maybe 10 seconds or so, then unplug my ears, it seems like i can hear quite a bit better, like pretty much normal hearing in my right ear, left ear is fine. ive heard from friends who experienced the same thing that it can last a couple days before it returns to normal. i just want to make sure i shouldnt be worried about more permanent hearing loss, or if i should go see a doctor.  i dont feel any pain or anything.

any advice is greatly appreciated!

[RudyLachinski]

O2 treatment....not likely. I have literally thousands of chamber runs ( commercial diver) with high PP O2 and they have done nothing to help my damaged hearing. You have fried some of your hearing, accept it and take steps not to be ,frankly, so stupid in the future.

[fauntleroy88]

Just shot a few rounds off some last night, and got the exact same muffled "stuffy ear" thing going plus the tinnitus ringing, but only in my left ear (odd, I shoot right handed). Shot a simple 9mm in a clearing in the deep woods at a friends property.

Last time I shot without ear-pro the muffled ear and ringing lasted about an hour or so, but now I'm on 8 hours and still no change. All I want to know is about how long did the muffled stuffy ear part last, since that bothers me the most that only one ear is fine and the other is plugged up (the feeling and sound, I mean). I honestly can care less about the tinnitus, I already intermittently experience it in either ear since I have been 3, and I'm now 25, so I'm used to it.

[dayton25]

Hi, any update on your recovery? I know it was a long time ago LOL

[Bmcarranza]

Has your ringing stop I've had it for 3 days straight I can hear now but the ringing doesn't stop

[MrAHarris]

Any update on your situation, has it gotten any better, completely gone? Similar situation here and it has been a week.

[mwgmed]

Any update on this?  I'm in your exact situation but am only at day four after my right ear hearing "trauma" caused after firing off a few rounds from a .380.  I'm on a steroid from an ENT and am praying for recovery.  I can't stop reading about the things I can do to help heal myself.  I don't think I'll even mow the grass again with out hearing protection!  I would love to hear how your recovery is 6+ months later.

[granderson]

im no expert either but from what ive read it sounds like the hair cells die over time. they get damaged and either die, or regenerate. i think they can just die right away, and thats when you have a big perminant hearing loss, even then i think it takes time for them to completely die.
anyway ive read a lot of different things ranging from a couple weeks to a couple months is the time frame you have to regenerate those hair cells, a lot of the time it happens on their own, but if you act quickly you have a better chance.
and i think that is for noise induced HEARING LOSS, which i dont think im experiencing, or maybe just very slightly.  really it just seems to me like part of my hearing is not functioning properly.  ive done any online test i could find and i can hear all through the frequency range in both ears the same.  at quiet levels too.   and that part of my hearing thats not functioning properly is whats making the buzzy sound.
what the marines said makes sense, because i have literally spent like 10+ hours the last 4 days researching noise induced hearing loss, and i have not found one study or anything that mentions this buzzy/ broken speaker sound after noise induced hearing loss.  not sure what they mean by the hairs are laying down or if thats actually happening, but that would make sense as to why they arent functioning properly.  either that or the swelling in my ear is preventing those hair cells from functioning normally, or something like that.