Are you hearing strange sounds like ringing, water running or hissing?
People have reported many other types of ear noises, so they are not limited to the sounds mentioned here, and some people report more than one sound! How maddening is that? Also, the sounds might be barely heard or drive you crazy with their loudness.
Sometimes the ringing in the ears is constant and sometimes only sporadic. The American Tinnitus Association lists noise as the leading cause of tinnitus (ear noises or ringing in the ears) and loss of hearing can occur if the damage continues.
Tinnitus is not a disease but a symptom of either something wrong or going wrong with your auditory (hearing) system. The first things to consider if you are experiencing ringing in the ears are loud noises. Are you exposed to noisy levels on the job? Do you listen to your iPod or some other MP3 with ear buds?
Headphones fitting over or on the ear are an improvement over ear buds but an even better choice is the noise-isolating or sound-canceling earphones. One study found that when background noise increases, listeners will turn up the volume of the music to drown out the noise, but the noise-isolating earphones block the background noise so the volume can be lower, thus helping in saving your ears.