I'm glad that I'm not the only one with both high and low tinnitus problems. Like many other people, I had high tinnitus first in one ear, and then the low frequency tinnitus buzzing started decades later.
In desperation, I found a doctor willing to cut the inner ear muscles, in the hope that the buzzing was caused by them spasming. After the operation, I had packing in my ear for a week, to allow the eardrum to heal. I still heard the buzzing after the operation, but by the time I had the packing out, I found I had some relief from the buzzing during the day. I was able to stay in a quiet room without hearing it. Although the buzzing still returned late at night, and also if I lied down during the day.
But when the outside temperature cooled, the the air conditioning at work and home was no longer needed. I experienced extended period of times of very little background noise, and that seems to have caused the buzzing to return again. Although I can't say for sure if that was the cause. Maybe it would have come back anyway. In any event, it's almost constant, unless I have low frequency background noise to drown it out (or suppress it, I'm not which is really happening).
My puzzle is, what caused this partial relief. Was it the fact that having packing in my ear for a week, settled down the neurons or brain, long enough to temporarily change my brain pattern? I'm almost wanting to ask the doctor to put in packing for a week and see if I obtain relief again. But it would still likely be a temporarily solution.
Has anyone tried wearing an snug fitting ear plug of some sort (silicon or customized), for an extended period of days, to see if blocking noise would have an effect? I have worn a silicon plug for a whole day in the past, but eventually I have the desire to take it out, because it becomes to irritating to the ear. Someday, I'll try to force myself to keep it in for a significant number of days, and see if that achieves anything!
FWIW, I've read a paper that theorizes that there are sections of the ear structure, that basically not much is known about, which could be the cause of some forms of tinnitus. Also, a lot of medicines can cause tinnitus. But since it's considered a rare side effect, people aren't warned about it. For example, both Lyrica and Neurontin were triggers for my very low frequency hum. Although I had experienced the hum before taking those medicines, it had mysteriously gone away on it's own. I also notice, that this hum, gets worse, when I simply lie down! So at least for me, my extremely irritating hum, is probably due to several factors.
The more I mention to people that I have tinnitus, the more people I discover that also have it. One woman told me, hers started, simply due to a minor fender bender accident!
I'll bet if you take people who live in a noisy city like New York city, and put them in a very quiet environment, you'll find that a lot of them have tinnitus that, they aren't aware of. Because I do absolutely fine in a an environment that has constant background noise. At night, when it's quiet, my low frequency hum revs up to very annoying levels (in only one ear, thankfully). Summer is my happy season, because of the air conditioning that is running, wherever I am.
I suspect that the only solution for a lot of people, is to try and find environments, which can distract the brain, so that people don't notice their tinnitus as much.
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