After 3 years of 25,000+ Hp in NASCAR, I've been living with tinnitus almost 20 years. When it's the result of exposure to excessive sound pressure levels, the hairs & hair cells in the cochlea become irreversibly damaged. There are other causes for tinnitus, but longterm exposure to extreme noise is the primary cause. For these folks (like me), no snake oil will cure it.
I've got 26dB loss in the left ear and 29dB in right ear, all at higher frequencies. Tinnitus in both my ears is constant high freq ringing. It's not at the point of requiring hearing aids, but that's a definite probability in future (I'm in late 50's).
You do get used to it. Some days it sounds worse than others, but you will acclimate.
A major cause of both tinnitus and hearing loss is head phones/ear buds. It's very easy to get them too loud and not notice it as the ears sort of go numb to the volume. 30 years from now, a LOT of today's kids will be needing hearing aids.
This is a sad reality. Kids don't realize that, if they're drowning out an 85dB lawnmower, their earbuds have to be putting out higher dB levels to override the lawnmower noise level. Although most of these kids are already living in their own little self-contained cocoon, not sure they will really care much b/c they'll be able to blame their withdrawal on (their own self-induced) hearing loss.
