Everyone who suffers from bothersome tinnitus wants something that will make their tinnitus go away. If you browse the internet or read newspapers and magazines, you can easily find people or organisations who will offer a method that claims to cure, or at least reduce, tinnitus. This could be in the form of medication, such as pills or injections; herbal supplements; devices and gadgets or different types of therapy and hypnosis. The list of "cures" is long, and getting longer.

Some of the information you read will be about effective, evidence based treatments. And some will be about treatments which haven't even been tested. There may even be suggestions you try treatments that are dangerous.

This page lists a number of treatments and gives our verdict on them. If you click on the treatment name, you can see the decision making tool we used to come to that verdict.

We provide verdicts on two aspects of each treatment:

  • Safety - whether the treatment will do you any harm 

  • Efficacy - whether the treatment works for tinnitus

Don't forget, if you want further information on managing tinnitus, explore this site or call our helpline on 0800 018 0527.

Key

Safety

Efficacy

Evidence of harm

Evidence that it has NO effect

Limited potential for harm

No evidence that it is effective

Regarded as safe

Evidence that it is effective

Tinnitus treatments

Treatment

Safety

Efficacy
Acouphenol
Acupuncture
Alprazolam (Xanax)
Amitriptyline
Anticonvulsants
Antidepressants
Betahistine
Cannabinoids (Cannabidiol, CBD oil, cannabinol)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Craniosacral therapy
Ear candles (Hopi ear candles, ear cones, auricular candles)
Electroacupuncture
Essential oils
Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR)
Ginkgo biloba
Hearing aids
Hypnotherapy (Hypnosis)
Hyperbaric oxygen
Laser therapy (Low Level Laser Therapy; Medium Level Laser Therapy; Tinnitool; EarLaser; Tinnitus Soft Laser)
Lenire(TM)
Levo® therapy system
Magnesium
Melatonin
Mindfulness based cognitive therapy
Neuromodulation
Neuromonics
Osteopathy

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

rTMS/TMS
Sound therapy

Tai chi (T’ai chi ch’üan, Tàijí quán)
Tinnitool (Low Level Laser Therapy; Tinnitus Soft Laser; Ear Laser)
Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT)

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)

Vitamin B12
Xanax (see Alprazolam)
Zinc

Updated 12 February 2020