A doctor can determine whether a person has experienced SSHL by conducting a normal hearing test. A decibel is a measure of sound. A decibel level of 30 is half as loud as a normal conversation. A frequency is another way of measuring sound. Frequencies measure sound waves and help to determine what makes one sound different from another sound.
Many people notice it when they wake up in the morning.
Others first notice it when they try to use the deafened ear, such as when they make a phone call. Some patients recover completely without medical intervention, often within the first 3 days. This is called a spontaneous recovery. Others get better slowly over a 1 or 2 week period. Approximately 4,000 new cases of SSHL occur each year in the United States.