When 75-year-old Jim Gray first noticed a loud humming noise at home, he thought his fridge was broken. It was during the pandemic so he rarely left the house – but when he eventually did, he noticed that the sound persisted.
‘It came on quite gradually,’ says the retired journalist from Toronto, Canada. ‘I remember talking to my friend and telling them how loud my fridge was – I didn’t really consider it could be anything else.
‘But it kept getting louder, and when I heard it outside I went to see a doctor who told me I had tinnitus.’
Over the next five years the ringing and buzzing in his ears got progressively worse, wreaking havoc on his sleep.
‘I would wake up feeling really groggy – I just could not get to sleep,’ says Jim. ‘It also did a number on my mental health. I had worked really hard all my life and was looking forward to the future, but every year the noise got 25 per cent louder, and I just thought, “When will this stop? It is going to be catastrophic.” ’
Jim tried everything from a ‘ridiculous’ diet that cut out all sugar, to acupuncture – but nothing offered long-term relief.
‘No one had the answer. I read a ton, did loads of research, but there just didn’t seem to be a solution.’
That was until he found what he called his ‘last shot’, an innovative new device called Lenire.
75-year-old Jim Gray tried everything from a ‘ridiculous’ diet that cut out all sugar to acupuncture in a bid to cure his tinnitus
For half an hour, twice a day, Jim would wear a headset coupled with a vibrating gadget held in his mouth and, bizarre as it seemed to begin with, he almost immediately saw an impact.
‘It was really dramatic,’ says Jim. ‘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 that after three months of using the device his tinnitus has almost completely gone, only flaring up on particularly stressful days. ‘The only thing I wish is that I had got the device sooner,’ he says.
Jim is one of 750 million people globally and around seven million in the UK to 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 or Meniere’s disease – a chronic inner-ear disorder that can also trigger vertigo. In these cases, treating the cause often provides relief.
But for about 1.5 million people, such as Jim, the condition is long-term, difficult to tackle and has a significant impact on daily life.
Persistent tinnitus is often linked to age-related hearing loss or noise damage caused by machinery, headphones or loud music.
Current treatments focus on helping patients better cope with the symptoms.
Talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness can help sufferers manage the distress caused by tinnitus, while sound-masking devices use white noise or background sounds to make the ringing less noticeable.
The Lenire device is being touted as a long-term solution for this group. The headphones play soothing noises while the vibrating gadget stimulates the trigeminal nerves – major nerves in the head – via the tongue.
The experts behind the device say the dual stimuli helps ‘retrain’ the brain to ignore the internal sounds of tinnitus.
Two 30-minute sessions each day for around 12 weeks are recommended, but patients can continue to use it indefinitely.
The device which costs around £3,500 is now available at 20 private clinics across the UK.
A 2022 clinical trial found that 90 per cent of the 450 participants reported a reduction in symptoms over six weeks.
Alison Moore, 62, began experiencing a loud, sharp ringing in her ears one day after swimming – and was initially told she had an ear infection
Researchers found that the results were sustained during the year following, as well.
‘We hypothesised 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,’ says Dr Ross O’Neil, founder and inventor of Lenire.
The trigeminal nerve connects with the hearing centres of the brain, suggesting it may help influence how tinnitus is processed.
‘Essentially what we are doing is subconsciously grabbing the brain’s attention away from the tinnitus,’ says Dr O’Neil. ‘It’s not a cure but it’s a treatment that reduces significant symptoms.’ He says that since the device has been rolled out, it has exceeded expectations. ‘What we have found really surprising is that the effects in the real world have been even greater than in the controlled trials,’ he says.
A real-world study published earlier this year in the American Journal of Audiology examined 140 tinnitus sufferers treated with the device. More than 80 per cent saw a significant improvement in symptoms after 12 weeks.
In a 2025 study of 212 people who sought help for moderate to severe tinnitus at an audiology clinic in Alaska, 91.5 per cent reported a significant improvement after using Lenire. At the outset, around half of participants had severe to ‘catastrophic’ tinnitus, a proportion that fell to 11 per cent after treatment. Among the rest, who started with moderate symptoms, rates dropped to 22 per cent.
By the end of the 12-week study, 66 per cent rated their tinnitus as ‘mild’ or ‘slight’.
‘We believe that the additional benefit found in the real world comes from the support provided by clinics, structured counselling that runs alongside the treatment and the patients’ ability to use the device over a longer period in a personalised way,’ says Dr O’Neil. ‘What we have found is that patients fall into three camps; people we call “one and dones” who use the device for the prescribed length between 12 to 52 weeks – which is what the research looked at – people who top up when they hear tinnitus coming back, and those who use it permanently.’
The real-world studies also found that patients whose tinnitus was most severe had the biggest benefit from the device.
Audiologists say that this is a phenomenon that they have seen in their clinics.
‘I have used the device with patients for around 18 months now,’ says Jordon Thompson, an audiologist at Harley Street Hearing and Musician Services in London.
‘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, and that is something we take into consideration when assessing a patient for the device.’
Experts suggest that there is a psychological reason why the device is more effective in this group of patients.
‘There is logic to Lenire, appearing more effective in people with more severe tinnitus,’ says Dr James Jackson, a psychologist and tinnitus expert at Leeds Trinity University. ‘These patients are often most distressed and desperate for something real and tangible to engage with.
‘This is a group of patients who are also less likely to respond to traditional interventions like cognitive behavioural therapy or mindfulness, so a technological intervention that works on them passively can be helpful.’
Experts say the device is not suitable for all patients, and that it is important to see an audiologist when considering Lenire.
‘Firstly, a patient will be ruled out from being able to use the device if they have implants, like a pacemaker or a cochlear,’ says Mr Thompson.
‘If patients have oral cavities, head and neck pain or a condition that causes them to faint, then we need to do further medical assessment to see if the device will be safe. It is also about using a holistic approach to assess what is the best option for the patient, based on their goals, previous treatment and level of tinnitus.’
Mr Thompson says that one of the most remarkable cases he has seen in his clinic using the device involved 62-year-old Alison Moore.
She said she began experiencing a loud, sharp ringing in her ears one day after swimming.
‘I remember the day – June 15 last year – exactly,’ says Alison, from Kingston-upon-Thames. ‘It came on so suddenly and I expected it to go away, but it persisted, so after a few days I went to the GP.’
Initially she was told she had an ear infection and that it would clear in a few days, but after a referral to an audiologist she was diagnosed with tinnitus.
‘What is scary is that you can’t control it – it’s a torture in your head that no one else can hear,’ says Alison.
‘Then you worry, which makes it worse and worse.’
Three months after her diagnosis, her tinnitus was becoming unbearable, causing sleepless nights which she feared was going to affect her job as a teacher.
That’s when – after some frantic googling – she discovered Lenire.
She used the device for four months, twice a day, and has noticed a marked difference in her condition.
‘From the get-go it felt like I was taking back control of the condition,’ says Alison.
‘It is like the device has trained your brain to block out the sounds of tinnitus.’
After the initial four months with the device, she says she did have a slight relapse but that the sound is nowhere near as loud as before her treatment.
Tinnitus cases have shot up by 50 per cent in the past two decades, research suggests
‘I still have it now, but the difference is really noticeable,’ she said.
‘The noise is quieter. Most of the time it is negligible and only really noticeable if I stop in a quiet room and listen to it.’
Currently, Lenire is only available privately in the UK. Last year the charity Tinnitus UK, gave the device its top rating for safety and marked it as effective compared with no treatment.
‘Tinnitus UK’s vision is for a world without tinnitus, so new, rigorous research is welcomed with open arms,’ says the charity’s chief executive, Alex Brooks-Johnson.
‘This change to the charity’s assessment of Lenire recognises years of hard work, building an evidence base that stands up to serious scrutiny.
‘We hope it encourages other researchers and companies to do the same – to take tinnitus seriously, and give people living with tinnitus the treatment options they need and deserve.’
The company hopes this is just the start for the device in the UK, with their sights set on NHS approval.
‘The hope is for Lenire to be available on the NHS, with the device being standard care for as many patients as possible,’ adds Dr O’Neil.
The growing curse of noises in your head
Tinnitus cases have shot up by 50 per cent in the past two decades, research suggests, with experts blaming modern lifestyles.
In one study last year, a third of audiologists reported a rise in cases of tinnitus compared to the previous 12 months.
And many of them said that more patients were opening discussions about the condition, according to the British and Irish Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association.
One audiologist in the report highlighted the increasing rates of tinnitus in younger generations, saying: ‘I am seeing more cases of tinnitus in under 50s, mainly due to the use of headphones or music earbuds.’ Experts suggest that headphones become a risk when listening at around 65 per cent of full volume, which is roughly 80 decibels.
However, others believe it is not just increasing exposure to loud music that is behind the rise in cases.
Nic Wray, a researcher at the charity Tinnitus UK, puts the increase 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 usage.
