Jim Gray, a 75-year-old retired journalist from Toronto, Canada, spent five years tormented by a ringing in his ears before a device called Lenire brought his tinnitus almost completely under control within three months.
Gray first noticed a loud humming noise at home during the pandemic and assumed his fridge was broken. When the noise persisted after he left the house, he saw a doctor and was diagnosed with tinnitus. Over the following five years the ringing and buzzing grew steadily worse, wrecking his sleep and, he says, his mental health.
"I would wake up feeling really groggy - I just could not get to sleep," Gray said. "Every year the noise got 25 percent louder, and I just thought, 'When will this stop? It is going to be catastrophic.'"
Gray tried a "ridiculous" sugar-free diet and acupuncture, but nothing brought lasting relief. He then tried Lenire, wearing a headset paired with a vibrating gadget held in his mouth for 30 minutes twice a day.
"It was really dramatic," Gray said. "Within three days it had reduced the noise I was hearing. I am quite a pessimistic person and many things do not work as advertised, but this was remarkable." He says the noise now only flares up on particularly stressful days, and wishes he had found the device sooner.
What is tinnitus
Gray is one of around 750 million people worldwide, and about 25 million in the United States, who suffer from tinnitus, a condition that causes ringing, buzzing, hissing or roaring sounds in one or both ears. Triggers include ear infections, earwax build-up and Meniere's disease, a chronic inner-ear disorder that can also cause vertigo, and treating the underlying cause can often bring relief in those cases.
For many others, tinnitus is long-term and difficult to treat, often linked to age-related hearing loss or noise damage from machinery, headphones or loud music. Existing treatments, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness and sound-masking devices that play white noise, are designed to help sufferers cope with symptoms rather than eliminate them.
How the Lenire device works
Lenire is being promoted as a longer-term option for this group. Its headphones play soothing sounds while the mouth-held gadget stimulates the trigeminal nerves, major nerves in the head, through the tongue. The device's makers say the combination helps retrain the brain to ignore the internal sounds of tinnitus. Patients are advised to use it twice a day for 30 minutes over around 12 weeks, though many continue using it indefinitely. A treatment package costs around $4,000 in the US and is not covered by most standard insurers or Medicare.
A 2022 clinical trial found that 90 percent of its 450 participants reported reduced symptoms after six weeks, with the improvement sustained a year later.
"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," said Dr Ross O'Neill, founder and inventor of Lenire. "It's not a cure but it's a treatment that reduces significant symptoms."
Real-world results
A real-world study published this year in the American Journal of Audiology examined 140 tinnitus sufferers treated with the device and found more than 80 percent saw significant improvement after 12 weeks. A separate 2025 study of 212 people treated at an audiology clinic in Alaska found 91.5 percent reported significant improvement. Around half of that group began with severe to "catastrophic" tinnitus, a proportion that fell to 11 percent after treatment, while the rate among those who started with moderate symptoms fell to 22 percent. By the end of the 12-week study, 66 percent rated their tinnitus as "mild" or "slight."
"What we have found really surprising is that the effects in the real world have been even greater than in the controlled trials," O'Neill said, crediting clinic support, structured counselling and patients' ability to use the device over a longer period. He said patients tend to fall into three groups: those who use it for the prescribed 12 to 52 weeks and stop, those who "top up" when tinnitus returns, and those who use it permanently.
Jordon Thompson, an audiologist at Harley Street Hearing and Musicians Services in London, said he has used the device with patients for around 18 months. "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," he said.
Dr James Jackson, a psychologist and tinnitus expert at Leeds Trinity University, said there was a logical reason for this. "These patients are often most distressed and desperate for something real and tangible to engage with," he said. "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."
Thompson said the device is not suitable for everyone. Patients with implants such as pacemakers or cochlear implants are ruled out, and those with oral infections, head and neck pain or conditions that cause fainting need further medical assessment before use.
Alison Moore's story
Thompson said one of the most striking cases he has seen involved Alison Moore, 62, who developed a loud, sharp ringing in her ears the day after swimming. "I remember the day - June 15 last year - exactly," Moore said. "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]."
She was initially told she had an ear infection that would clear up, but a referral to an audiologist led to a tinnitus diagnosis. "What is scary is that you can't control it - it's a torture in your head that no one else can hear," Moore said. "Then you worry, which makes it worse and worse."
Three months after her diagnosis, sleepless nights caused by the condition were threatening her work as a teacher, and she found Lenire after searching online. She used the device twice a day for four months. "From the get-go it felt like I was taking back control of the condition," Moore said. "It is like the device has trained your brain to block out the sounds of tinnitus." She had a slight relapse afterward but said the noise remains far quieter than before treatment, "negligible" unless she is in a quiet room.
Why tinnitus cases are rising
Tinnitus cases have risen by 50 percent over the past two decades, according to research, with experts pointing to modern lifestyles. One study last year found a third of audiologists reported a rise in cases compared with the previous 12 months, according to the British and Irish Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association, with more patients also opening up about the condition.
One audiologist quoted in the report said younger generations were increasingly affected: "I am seeing more cases of tinnitus in under 50s, mainly due to the use of headphones or music earbuds." Headphones become risky at around 65 percent of full volume, roughly 80 decibels, experts say.
Nic Wray, a researcher at the charity Tinnitus UK, said the rise was 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 use.
