Air date: December 6, 2009

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We've all experienced ringing in the ears from time to time. And normally, it just goes away on its own.

But for some people, for tens of millions actually, the ringing doesn't go away. Ever. The condition is called tinnitus, (sometimes pronounced tinnitus). It's usually caused by hearing loss, and what happens is that the brain makes up for its lost hearing ability by creating its own, internal sounds.

As you might imagine, tinnitus is incredibly stressful. Imagine trying to relax or sleep with those sounds in your head.

But there are some promising treatments. Donna Segal is an audiologist in Indianapolis. She uses an audiometer to measure the pitch and loudness of a patient's tinnitus.

" ... and to see we are able to cover up that tinnitus with a particular type of noise or with a frequency that someone is perceiving that tinnitus to be."

Segal sends her information to a company called Neuromonics, which uses it to create tracks of music and nature sounds specially calibrated to mask the patient's tinnitus.

Using an iPod-like device, the patient spends a few hours every day listening to the tracks. And when they do, the tinnitus is sort of canceled out by the specially calibrated music. Ideally, after a few months, the music directs the brain to make new connections that mute or somehow bypass the faulty wiring causing tinnitus.

And so the loud internal sound becomes a softer tinnitus sound, and then, hopefully, gradually, it fades into the background.

Additional Resources:

• The MedlinePlus entry on tinnitus.
• Read about this new device that helps relieve, and even cure, tinnitus.

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