Dealing with ringing in the ears

I hear a persistent ringing in my ears that drives me nuts and makes it hard for me to sleep. How can I make it go away?

- Melinda Wenner Moyer

Tinnitus is the experience of hearing phantom noises, typically in the form of ringing, buzzing or roaring sounds. It is a common and usually harmless condition. According to a 2024 analysis, about 11 per cent of American adults experience tinnitus, and 41 per cent of them hear noises constantly rather than intermittently.

It is rare for tinnitus to be cured, but a person's prognosis depends on what is causing the symptoms. Even if it is not curable, "there are a lot of good ways to manage it", said Dr Mohamed Elrakhawy, an ear, nose and throat (or ENT) doctor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

CAUSES OF TINNITUS Tinnitus can have a variety of causes, said Dr Zachary Schwam, an ENT doctor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Sometimes, he said, it can be a result of tumors, nerve problems, asymmetries in veins, holes in or fluid behind the eardrums, earwax or damage to the bones behind the eardrums.

In these cases, it is typical for tinnitus to occur in only one ear, and it can sometimes resemble the sound of a heartbeat. If your tinnitus presents this way, it is important to get it checked out by a doctor, Dr Schwam said.

But most of the time, tinnitus is a harmless by-product of hearing loss, said Dr Kenny Lin, an ENT doctor at Houston Methodist Hospital. "The hair cells of the cochlear nerve endings are damaged and send an altered signal to the brain, which is perceived as a ringing, humming, buzzing or static sound," he added.