Ears Still Ringing After Visarjan? When That Needs a Doctor

The morning after visarjan our phones start ringing, and so, patients tell us, do their ears. A high-pitched hiss or buzz that will not go away, or a sense that the world sounds like it is coming through a pillow. It is one of the most common things we see after Ganeshotsav, and most of the time it settles on its own.

Most of the time is not all of the time, though. This is the short version of what we tell people on the phone: what a normal recovery looks like, at what point it stops being normal, and the one symptom that should have you in an ENT clinic the same day rather than waiting to see.

Why your ears ring after a loud procession

Sound is picked up by microscopic hair cells in the inner ear. Very loud noise, and Pune's visarjan route has been measured averaging around 92 decibels with peaks above 109, overworks those cells. They become temporarily exhausted and misfire, which your brain interprets as ringing, hissing or buzzing. This is tinnitus, and alongside it hearing often feels dulled.

In most people this is a temporary threshold shift. The cells recover over a day or two and hearing returns to normal. What matters is whether it recovers, and how completely.

The normal recovery timeline

The one that is genuinely urgent

If you notice a sudden, marked loss of hearing, especially in only one ear, treat it as urgent and see an ENT doctor the same day. Sudden sensorineural hearing loss is treatable, but treatment works best when it begins within the first few days, and the chances fall steadily after that. People lose recoverable hearing every year by waiting a fortnight to see whether it improves on its own.

The same applies if the ringing comes with spinning, severe imbalance, ear pain or discharge, or if it started after a blow to the ear rather than just loud noise.

What to do, and what not to do

• Give your ears real quiet for a day or two; that is genuinely the treatment
• Avoid a second loud exposure while they are recovering, this is when lasting damage happens
• Do not put cotton buds, oil or drops into the ear to relieve the sensation
• Do not use headphones at higher volume to mask the ringing
• Sleep well; tinnitus is nearly always worse when you are tired and stressed
• If it is still there after three days, get a hearing test rather than waiting it out

What a hearing test actually involves

It is quick, completely painless, and there is nothing to prepare. You sit in a quiet room, wear headphones, and indicate when you can hear tones at different pitches and volumes. It produces a clear chart of your hearing, which tells us whether anything has actually changed, and gives you a baseline to compare against after future festivals.

Where dizziness or imbalance is part of the picture, we can also run advanced balance testing in our in-house vestibular lab in the same visit, rather than sending you elsewhere.

Getting it checked in Viman Nagar

If your ears have been ringing since visarjan and it has not settled, our ENT and audiology team at Prudent International Health Clinic can examine you, test your hearing, and tell you plainly whether this is ordinary recovery or something that needs treating now. We are open all seven days, and we keep slots free in the week after visarjan for exactly this.