You can't just play it by ear.
Once you have been exposed to sound that is loud enough, for long enough, to leave you with loud ringing in your ears the next morning, you only have about 24 hours to stop the middle- and inner-ear inflammation that could leave you with only 10% of the hearing you had before, or less, and with your ears ringing like fire alarms for the rest of your life.
You can take immediate steps.
Usually the most immediately available effective treatment after traumatic noise exposure is oral steroids, specifically Prednisone or Prednisolone, at a dose of 1mg/Kg of body weight, not to exceed 60mg, followed very quickly (ASAP within 1-3 days) by in injection into the ear of Dexamethasone, a more powerful and more effective local steroid. In order to be seen quickly for an injection by an ENT specialist, you would probably need to use the medical code words "Acoustic Trauma." Consult with your prescribing doctor, Urgent Care Center, or nearest Emergency Room immediately to find out whether this emergency treatment to save your hearing is safe for you and available to you.
Know the science.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9501729/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29649042/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6002596/pdf/main.pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24303415/
Personal Statement
I am posting this information to help other high-performance drivers, crew members, and track safety personnel to prevent permanent hearing damage to themselves immediately after an acoustic trauma. This is simply an informational and educational effort toward tertiary prevention of hearing loss and tinnitus. Tertiary prevention is a very poor substitute for primary prevention (avoiding noise and always wearing strong hearing protection), but it has recently become possible and effective, however it can only work if action is taken very quickly. If I had known the scientific information posted here prior to my damaging noise exposure, I could have simply reached into my medicine cabinet at home and instantly prevented the 45dB hearing loss and tinnitus I have sustained. Because I patiently waited 14 days for the next available audiology appointment, my tinnitus and hearing loss are now considered permanent. If I had known, I would have gone to the ER by day 2. ERs typically have ENTs on call for consult in such emergency cases. Please see the scientific studies listed above to understand the importance of following the latest research and getting treatment from a licensed medical professional immediately after exposure to a potentially damaging acoustic trauma.
Disclaimer
I am providing this information not as medical advice, prescription, or as any substitute for a physician's care, or for your responsibility to seek and obtain licensed medical care or emergency treatment. I provide this purely scientific information simply on a need-to-know basis, to people who are routinely at risk, because I now understand that everyone at the track has a legitimate need to know, and a right to know.
Brad Richards
(Formerly in White Porsche 991.1 GT3RS #86, "GIMME A LARGE BOB," curently in Porsche 992 Cup #86)
This is the one and only time when the first lap really needs to be the fastest
If you already have persistent tinnitus, there is a very legitimate, rigorously scientifically developed treatment option coming shortly, that has been shown to actually reduce the phantom tinnitus signal:
https://innovation.medicine.umich.edu/portfolio_post/shore/
UCSF has a pretty conprehensive set of online resources for tinnitus:
https://www.ucsfhealth.org/conditions/tinnitus
Tinnitus Habituation Therapy appears quite helpful over an 18-month period, at least in Brasil
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7850883/
This study has problems, including accepting the null hypothesis with low statistical resolving power, but shows there's room for improvement in habituation therapy:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22609540/
References in search of relevance: understanding tinnitus circuitry, inhibitory learning, and tasks for cognitive/emotional/behavioral mastery of same
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5822213/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4945432/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20541595/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2904345/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalamic_reticular_nucleus
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3956492/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3188549/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15474168/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14687557/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3319920/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10753332/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23632885/