Can ears be damaged by a sound they can't hear?

[Stereolab]

The monitor I have in the office sometimes emits a sustained, extremely high-pitched whistle sound that makes my head hurt like hell, and makes it very difficult to work. (I'm supposed to be getting the monitor replaced soon.) Anyway, some of the other people in the office can hear the sound when they sit at my desk; others can't hear it at all, I guess their hearing doesn't go up to that high of a frequency. So I started thinking, what would it feel like to get blasted with a "sound" you can't hear? What would be the effect of a 200 dB dog whistle? Or, if you can't hear it, is it 0 dB no matter what?

[jj]

I'm not a doctor, and I really can't start to offer any kind of professional health advice over the net in any case.

Having said that, you could google up "ultrasound" and "hearing damage" and see what shows up, I expect. You'd have to filter things a big.

[bozothedeathmachine]

Anecdote and a bit OT: I used to work in a microimmunology lab and they had this little neddle-looking device that would vibrate fast enough to rupture cells floating in a solution. When it was on most people couldn't hear it except when they were calibrating it (there was a theory that only those that disliked brocolli could hear it then...because we all hated it). Then when they got down to the rupturin' business it could not be heard. However, when on, even in that phase, I knew it was on. Not in a psychic way, or anything, but I could kind of feel it.

Like I said OT, but there you have it. We can experience/detect ultra-sonic sounds but not 100% sure it that's called "hearing" them.