I am a bit hesitant to enter this discussion because I am a research physician, but I have had this problem for about three years. Rich is correct: one possible cause is a tumor either in the nerve from the ear or in the brain. An MRI exam should find these; surgery may be possible. My problem was from a blood clot that "knocked out" the nerve from my right ear, only partially. There is good research ongoing at MIT/Harvard if you want to look into it. People have occasionally had tinnitus reduced by a large number of different drugs, but no one drug works for everyone. Elizabeth is partly right; many of the drugs that have worked have effects on the brain such as sedation which can be unpleasant. Above comments about aspirin, Tylenol, alcohol, etc., making it worse are also true for many of us. And, you can "learn to live with it", but it can be very annoying in quiet settings especially when you want to listen to music. I have been using headphones a lot recently, and I have found that listening at loud volumes seems to make it worse for the next several days.
