Frequencies you can't hear?

[echosystm]

Sorry, I wasn't sure which forum to put this in.

Can frequencies you can't hear damage your hearing, at high volume? For example, if I cannot hear above 15khz, would a 17khz tone at high volume damage my hearing? Assuming the tone was only 2 seconds long, would you instantly feel pain/ringing if it was loud enough to do damage?

I am not deaf. I am a musician, and someone posted a hearing test on a forum I go on. I could not hear above 15khz, so I turned the volume up very loud to try and hear something. I could only barely hear something. My ears didn't hurt and there was no ringing (or at least I did not notice it). Note: I had a cold in the previous week, where I was blowing green gunk out constantly, so it is possible I had a sinus infection. Apparently a sinus infection could affect the results of the test. 15khz for a 20 year old seems very low in comparison to my friends, who can mostly hear from 18-20khz. After doing research, I have convinced myself that I have tinnitus. Perhaps I am just paranoid, but I can hear a ringing when I go to sleep. This is causing me a lot of anxiety, as I can't stop focusing on it.

What is the likelihood of the the "tinnitus" being from:
- The hearing test damaging my hearing?
- Me being paranoid?
- Previous damage, just not noticed?
- Sinus infection?

I have felt a tiny bit blocked in the ears, whether this is from the hearing test (damage) or the cold I had, I have no idea. I will go to an audiologist in about a week or so, when I can be 100% sure the cold will not affect my diagnosis. In the mean time, my curiousity is killing me and I would really appreciate some input!

Thanks!

 

[farmerjoe]

That's quite an unusual question, I've never considered the potential damage done by ultrasonic sound. I did a search on google and found this:

e-Prints Soton - Damage to human hearing by airborne sound of very high frequency or <b style="color:black;background-color:#ffff66">ultrasonic</b> frequency

there's a link to a PDF you can read, I don't have the time or interest to look at it myself.

What is the likelihood of the the "tinnitus" being from:
- The hearing test damaging my hearing?
- Me being paranoid?
- Previous damage, just not noticed?
- Sinus infection?

All except the first one. Tinnitus starts in the ear but is very much in your brain. The more you stress over it the worse it will be. my advice is to do something to distract yourself from it.

once your infection is all cleared up the tinnitus may go away.

Don't stress out so much about not being able to hear above 15khz, I can't hear above 2khz.

 

[Awauphi]

and taking cold medicines can cause tinnutis so keep that in mind as it happened to me before. Dont be paranoid- be patient and go to your appointment and the dr can figure it out what is wrong with yu.

I do have tinnutis constantly and its really annoying but I try to ignore that. I have Meniere's Disease. I also have a progessive hearing loss in my left ear as i cant hear nothing but still can hear some in my right ear. There are marked loss in my right ear.

My sister endured many years of listening to loud music and now she cant hear in right ear but she is still able to hear in her left ear. Also Bill Clinton endured many years of loud noise of music and the result is he is deaf and have to wear hearing aid for that.

So its possible that you can lose your hearing from listening to loud music. Be sure to let the dr know that you hear loud music and how long you do this. ok. Good luck and do let us know how that goes, ok.

BTW Welcome to AllDeaf and I hope you will enjoy the stay with us!