Tinnitus — Understanding the Ringing in Your Ears
How common is tinnitus and what causes it? When to see a doctor right away, and what to watch out for when using a tone generator to find your tinnitus frequency.
Published 2026-09-26
What tinnitus is
Tinnitus is hearing a sound such as ringing, buzzing or hissing in the ears or head when there is no outside sound. It is less a single disease than a symptom that can come from many causes.
How common it is
A 2022 meta-analysis in JAMA Neurology (Jarach et al.) estimated the prevalence of tinnitus in adults at about 14.4%, and severe tinnitus at about 2.3%. That works out to more than 740 million adults worldwide living with tinnitus.
Common causes
- Noise exposure and age-related hearing loss — it often appears together with reduced hearing.
- Outer- and middle-ear problems such as earwax or middle-ear infections
- Some medications (drugs that are toxic to the ear), jaw joint problems, stress and lack of sleep
When to see a doctor right away
- When one ear suddenly can't hear well — sudden hearing loss is treated as an emergency because earlier treatment works better.
- When the tinnitus stays in one ear only, or pulses in time with your heartbeat (pulsatile tinnitus)
- When it comes with dizziness, ear pain or discharge, or facial weakness
Finding your tinnitus frequency with a tone generator
Knowing a pitch close to your tinnitus can help you describe it to a doctor. When searching, try this:
- Start with a sine wave at a low volume.
- Match the octave first with the ÷2 and ×2 buttons, then narrow it down with the slider and the ±10 and ±1 buttons.
- It's easy to mistake a sound one octave away for the same sound (octave confusion), so also compare half and double the value you found.
- If the tinnitus is in one ear, setting 'Ear' to the other side makes the comparison easier.
'Self-treatment' by playing a specific frequency loudly for a long time lacks evidence and may strain your ears. Sound therapy should be done in consultation with a professional.
What you can do day to day
- On quiet nights, play soft background sound to reduce the contrast with your tinnitus.
- Avoid loud sound and protect your ears in noisy places.
- Manage sleep and stress. People differ a lot, so it helps to keep a note of what makes it worse.
This site does not diagnose or treat tinnitus.
Sources
- Jarach CM et al. (2022), Global Prevalence and Incidence of Tinnitus, JAMA Neurology 79(9) — DOI
- NIDCD, Tinnitus — nidcd.nih.gov