Tinnitus may be defined as the sensation of sound in the ear(s) or head not due to a source outside the body. Causes of tinnitus include things such as excessive noise exposure, acoustic trauma, tumors, wax build-up, temporo-mandibular joint (the joint that connects the lower jaw to the skull) disorders, thyroid disease, heart problems, etc... However, more than 95% of the patients who experience tinnitus do not have a medical condition. Tinnitus and hearing loss can coexist but the correlation between the two is not a strong one. It is incorrect to say that the presence of tinnitus in a patient is due to the presence of a hearing loss. There are many hearing impaired individuals who do not experience tinnitus. Likewise, 30% of the patients with TOTALLY normal hearing experience the most troublesome tinnitus there is.

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