There are many possible causes for tinnitus. Some are not serious. Tinnitus can also be a symptom of a head and neck aneurysm or acoustic neuroma, either of which can be life threatening. These problems often involve a loss of hearing. The treatment will be quite different in each case.
Most tinnitus comes from damage to the microscopic endings of the hearing nerve in the inner ear.
The health of these nerve endings is important for acute hearing, and injury to them brings on hearing loss and often tinnitus. Advancing age is generally accompanied by a certain amount of hearing nerve impairment and even tinnitus. Exposure to loud noises is probably the leading cause of tinnitus in today's world, and it often damages hearing as well. Unfortunately, many people are unaware of, or unconcerned about, the harmful effects of excessively loud industrial noise, firearms noise, high intensity music and other loud noises. Stereo headsets played too loudly appear to be an increasing cause of ear damage in otherwise healthy young people.