Tinnitus is an unfortunate occurrence where the hearing of someone is usually continually interrupted with irritating sounds often resembling a ringing, buzzing, whistling, humming or related sound. Usually most people suffering from this also have a hearing loss of some sort, but this is not necessarily always correct. In some people the noise in ear is seemingly continuous while for others it only comes under certain conditions. Since each person experiences different things with respects to tinnitus, the treatments for it also range. Some people have had great success with type of surgery called gamma knife radiosurgery, others have found various medications help to quite the sounds. This includes some drugs taken topically into the ear cannel and others taken orally. There are even various vitamins and minerals such as zinc and lipoflavonoids that have been found to be helpful. Other noted benefits to helping are the avoidance or reduction of caffeine as well as quitting smoking. Interestingly enough, alcohol has had both effects of making it better for some and making it worse for others. If you suffer from tinnitus I would first recommend seeing a doctor and getting it checked out.