At times doctors need to make difficult decisions in order to save a sick person's life. Some life-saving drugs can cause permanent damage to ears. Doctors only choose to use this kind of medicine if someone is very ill. Accidents to the head can also damage the ear. A hard blow to the head can crack the bone of the inner ear or break the ossicles.
Noises can damage hearing, too.
The loss can be temporary or permanent. Exploding a firecracker close to the head, playing loud music, shooting guns or cap pistols, and working with power tools for long periods of time again and again can damage the inner ear. Noise can even cause a permanent, annoying ringing sound in the ear. Worn at high volume for several hours, these devices can also cause hearing problems. Many older people, maybe even your grandmother or grandfather or a great aunt or uncle, have hearing problems.