Question: my boyfriend walked past a car last week that had a LOUD alarm go off. ever since then he has had ringing in his right ear, with a little pain, but mostly the on-going, never-ending ear ringing. he went to a doctor and they cant see anything, they THINK it is nerve damage, and gave him an antibiotic, and didn't gurantee that the medicine would make it go away and recommended he see an audologist. he then complained about a certain tooth hurting, this was weeks after the ear thing came up. he does have allergies from time to time, and probably has high blood pressure, he gets stressed out at work half the time. his mom told me when he was in highschool she took him to an ear doctor and they said his left ear suffered SOME hearing loss. so now that this right ear is ringing, i'm wondering why and what will make it go away, and if it is damaged from just that one loud car alarm, he said it was just 1-2 seconds long. last question, once you get ear damage, is it fixable?

Answer: I doubt the car alarm would cause long term hearing loss if it was just a momentary blast. I would suspect the tooth is causing the ringing. An infected tooth can irritate the facial nerve which runs from the jaw upward very close to the ear canal, I think this could cause the ringing (tinnitus). See a dentist and get the tooth fixed. This may solve two problems at once. Loss of hearing can be temporary or permanent depending on the cause. If the bones of the middle ear are damaged big problem, if it is just cilia damage in the inner ear they grow back and hearing is sometimes restored.