Teenage Boy Suffers Hearing Loss From Long Exposure To Cicada Noise

It's a summer staple in the Midwest. Just as the sun is about to go down, a droning chorus rolls throughout the backyard, sometimes so loud you can hear it inside of your house.

It's even worse when one of those 17-year broods decides to come out of their hiding.

An 18-year-old named Wang went camping out in the wonderful forrests of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, where he listened to the sounds of the cicadas for several hours.

a close up of a fly on a leaf

Wang noticed that the cicada noises became way louder once noon hit, but he stayed until the evening. It was during the evening, after hours of sitting in the cicada noise, he could feel tinnitus and pressure in his ears.

Once the bugs got quiet, he suddenly realized he couldn't hear birds chirping, or even the sounds on his phone.

Wang was scared his hearing damage was permanent, so he went straight to the hospital. During an exam, both of his ears were swollen. He was prescribed medicine to bring the swelling down and told to avoid loud noises for a few weeks.

After the swelling went down, he made a full recovery.

a person holding a phone to the ear

“Many people mistakenly think that the sounds of nature are harmless to the ears,” Li Ji, a senior doctor in the Ear, Nose and Throat department of Ningbo University Hospital, explained.

“The hair cells in the cochlea can develop oedema due to the irritation from loud noises for a relatively short duration. They typically recover after avoiding the noisy environment and resting for 1-2 weeks,” Dr. Li explained. “However, if the hair cells become necrotic, they cannot regenerate. The resulting hearing impairment is permanent and irreversible, forcing the patient to rely on hearing aids for auditory assistance.”

Read more at Oddity Central