When 75-year-old Jim Gray first heard a persistent humming in his home, he assumed the refrigerator was to blame. It was during the pandemic, when he spent most of his time indoors, but the noise was still there when he eventually ventured outside.
“It came on quite gradually,” says the retired journalist from Toronto, Canada. “I remember speaking to a friend and telling them how loud my fridge was. I didn’t really think it could be anything else.”
“But it kept getting louder. When I could hear it outside, I went to see a doctor, who told me I had tinnitus.”
Over the following five years, the ringing and buzzing in his ears steadily intensified, severely disrupting his sleep.
“I would wake up feeling completely groggy because I simply couldn’t get to sleep,” Jim says. “It also had a major effect on my mental health. I had worked hard all my life and was looking forward to the future, but every year the noise seemed to get 25 percent louder. I kept thinking, ‘When will this stop? It’s going to be catastrophic.’”
Jim tried a range of potential remedies, from what he describes as a “ridiculous” sugar-free diet to acupuncture. None provided lasting relief.
“No one had the answer. I read a huge amount and did plenty of research, but there just didn’t seem to be a solution.”
That changed when he discovered what he called his “last shot”: an innovative tinnitus treatment device known as Lenire.
Twice a day for 30 minutes, Jim wore headphones while using a vibrating device held in his mouth. Although the treatment initially seemed unusual, he says he noticed an effect almost immediately.
75-year-old Jim Gray tried everything from a “ridiculous” sugar-free diet to acupuncture in an effort to relieve his tinnitus
“It was really dramatic,” Jim says. “Within three days, the noise I was hearing had reduced. I’m quite a pessimistic person, and many things don’t work as advertised, but this was remarkable.”
After three months of using the device, Jim says his tinnitus had almost completely disappeared, returning only on particularly stressful days. “The only thing I wish is that I had got the device sooner,” he says.
Jim is among the estimated 750 million people worldwide—and roughly 25 million in the US—living with tinnitus. The condition can produce ringing, buzzing, hissing or roaring sounds in one or both ears.
Possible triggers include ear infections, a build-up of earwax and Meniere’s disease, a chronic inner-ear disorder that can also cause vertigo. When tinnitus results from one of these problems, treating the underlying cause can often bring relief.
For many people, however—including Jim—the condition is persistent, difficult to manage and capable of having a profound effect on everyday life.
Long-term tinnitus is frequently associated with age-related hearing loss or damage caused by exposure to machinery, headphones or loud music.
Most existing treatments are designed to help patients manage the symptoms and cope with their impact.
Talking therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness, can help people manage the distress linked to tinnitus. Sound-masking devices, meanwhile, use white noise or other background sounds to make the internal ringing less noticeable.
Lenire is being promoted as a longer-term option for people with persistent tinnitus. Its headphones deliver soothing sounds while the accompanying device stimulates the trigeminal nerves—major nerves in the head—through the tongue.
The experts who developed the device say that combining the two forms of stimulation may help “retrain” the brain to tune out the internal sounds associated with tinnitus.
Two 30-minute sessions each day for around 12 weeks are recommended, but patients can continue to use it indefinitely.
A treatment package involving a Lenire device can cost around $4,000 in the US, and won’t be covered by most standard insurers or Medicare.
A 2022 clinical trial found that 90 per cent of the 450 participants reported a reduction in symptoms over six weeks.
Alison Moore, 62, began experiencing a loud, sharp ringing in her ears one day after swimming – and was initially told she had an ear infection
Researchers found that the results were sustained during the year following, as well.
‘We hypothesized that if we could pair sounds similar in pitch and frequency to tinnitus noise that patients are experiencing with nerve stimulation, through the tongue tip, we might be able to rewire the brain to dampen the condition,’ says Dr Ross O’Neill, founder and inventor of Lenire.
The trigeminal nerve connects with the hearing centers of the brain, suggesting it may help influence how tinnitus is processed.
‘Essentially what we are doing is subconsciously grabbing the brain’s attention away from the tinnitus,’ says Dr O’Neill. ‘It’s not a cure but it’s a treatment that reduces significant symptoms.’ He says that since the device has been rolled out, it has exceeded expectations. ‘What we have found really surprising is that the effects in the real world have been even greater than in the controlled trials,’ he says.
A real-world study published earlier this year in the American Journal of Audiology examined 140 tinnitus sufferers treated with the device. More than 80 percent saw a significant improvement in symptoms after 12 weeks.
In a 2025 study of 212 people who sought help for moderate to severe tinnitus at an audiology clinic in Alaska, 91.5 percent reported a significant improvement after using Lenire. At the outset, around half of participants had severe to ‘catastrophic’ tinnitus, a proportion that fell to 11 percent after treatment. Among the rest, who started with moderate symptoms, rates dropped to 22 percent.
By the end of the 12-week study, 66 percent rated their tinnitus as ‘mild’ or ‘slight’.
‘We believe that the additional benefit found in the real world comes from the support provided by clinics, structured counselling that runs alongside the treatment and the patients’ ability to use the device over a longer period in a personalized way,’ says Dr O’Neill. ‘What we have found is that patients fall into three camps; people we call “one and dones” who use the device for the prescribed length between 12 to 52 weeks – which is what the research looked at – people who top up when they hear tinnitus coming back, and those who use it permanently.’
The real-world studies also found that patients whose tinnitus was most severe had the biggest benefit from the device.
Audiologists say that this is a phenomenon that they have seen in their clinics.
‘I have used the device with patients for around 18 months now,’ says Jordon Thompson, an audiologist at Harley Street Hearing and Musicians Services in London.
‘In my experience, it can be effective for all sub-types of tinnitus but it is generally more effective for patients with a moderate to severe form of the condition, and that is something we take into consideration when assessing a patient for the device.’
Experts suggest that there is a psychological reason why the device is more effective in this group of patients.
‘There is logic to Lenire, appearing more effective in people with more severe tinnitus,’ says Dr James Jackson, a psychologist and tinnitus expert at Leeds Trinity University. ‘These patients are often most distressed and desperate for something real and tangible to engage with.
‘This is a group of patients who are also less likely to respond to traditional interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy or mindfulness, so a technological intervention that works on them passively can be helpful.’
Experts say the device is not suitable for all patients, and that it is important to see an audiologist when considering Lenire.
‘Firstly, a patient will be ruled out from being able to use the device if they have implants, like a pacemaker or a cochlear,’ says Mr Thompson.
‘If patients have oral infections, head and neck pain or a condition that causes them to faint, then we need to do further medical assessment to see if the device will be safe. It is also about using a holistic approach to assess what is the best option for the patient, based on their goals, previous treatment and level of tinnitus.’
Tinnitus cases have shot up by 50 percent in the past two decades, research suggests
Mr Thompson says that one of the most remarkable cases he has seen in his clinic using the device involved 62-year-old Alison Moore.
She said she began experiencing a loud, sharp ringing in her ears one day after swimming.
‘I remember the day – June 15 last year – exactly,’ says Alison. ‘It came on so suddenly and I expected it to go away, but it persisted, so after a few days I went to [a doctor].’
Initially she was told she had an ear infection and that it would clear in a few days, but after a referral to an audiologist she was diagnosed with tinnitus.
‘What is scary is that you can’t control it – it’s a torture in your head that no one else can hear,’ says Alison.
‘Then you worry, which makes it worse and worse.’
Three months after her diagnosis, her tinnitus was becoming unbearable, causing sleepless nights which she feared was going to affect her job as a teacher.
That’s when – after some frantic googling – she discovered Lenire.
She used the device for four months, twice a day, and has noticed a marked difference in her condition.
‘From the get-go it felt like I was taking back control of the condition,’ says Alison.
‘It is like the device has trained your brain to block out the sounds of tinnitus.’
After the initial four months with the device, she says she did have a slight relapse but that the sound is nowhere near as loud as before her treatment.
‘I still have it now, but the difference is really noticeable,’ she said.
‘The noise is quieter. Most of the time it is negligible and only really noticeable if I stop in a quiet room and listen to it.’
The growing curse of noises in your head
Tinnitus cases have shot up by 50 percent in the past two decades, research suggests, with experts blaming modern lifestyles.
In one study last year, a third of audiologists reported a rise in cases of tinnitus compared to the previous 12 months.
And many of them said that more patients were opening discussions about the condition, according to the British and Irish Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association.
One audiologist in the report highlighted the increasing rates of tinnitus in younger generations, saying: ‘I am seeing more cases of tinnitus in under 50s, mainly due to the use of headphones or music earbuds.’ Experts suggest that headphones become a risk when listening at around 65 percent of full volume, which is roughly 80 decibels.
However, others believe it is not just increasing exposure to loud music that is behind the rise in cases.
Nic Wray, a researcher at the charity Tinnitus UK, puts the increase down to ‘an ageing population, the lingering effects of Covid and long Covid, heightened stress and anxiety in daily life’ as well as increased headphone usage.
