Tinnitus comes from the Latin word meaning “tinkling sound” and is medically defined as the sensation of sound produced by the body when no external sound is transmitted to the ear. Tinnitus can occur in one or both ears and is associated with annoyance, difficulty sleeping, difficulty concentrating and, in severe cases, serious physical and mental health problems. The incidence of tinnitus is high, with about 17% of people experiencing tinnitus. It is worth pointing out that tinnitus is a symptom, not a disease name. It can be a manifestation of diseases such as Meniere’s disease, auditory neuroma, and sudden deafness, but most people with tinnitus are not found to have a clear organic pathology. There are many ways to classify tinnitus. Depending on the source of the sound, tinnitus can be classified as tinnitus originating outside of the auditory structures and tinnitus originating in the auditory structures. Tinnitus originating from outside the auditory structures accounts for only a minority of the clinical cases, and the source of the sound is the noise produced by the body itself, such as myogenic autosomal sounds caused by palatal muscle spasm or tympanic membrane tensor spasm. Hematogenous autophony is caused by vascular abnormalities in the adjacent ear, such as arteriovenous fistulas and hemangiomas, and is characterized by a pulsating tinnitus with a rhythm consistent with that of the heartbeat. Based on the characteristics of the tinnitus sound and a thorough examination of the head and neck, most of this type of tinnitus can be clearly diagnosed and treated accordingly. Most tinnitus can be attributed to a functional disorder of the auditory nervous system of the brain rather than to a lesion in the ear. Drugs that regulate the neural response can eliminate pathological arousal, antidepressants help patients tolerate tinnitus, and Chinese medicine is often used to treat tinnitus. Unfortunately these medications are only effective in some patients and may have negative effects. Since tinnitus may be a concomitant symptom of certain organic pathologies, a prompt and causal diagnosis is required for all tinnitus patients after a standardized otologic visual and audiologic evaluation and imaging examination. In recent years, a behavioral treatment method called tinnitus retraining therapy has been developed for patients who have been excluded from organic ear pathology, based on the human brain’s ability to make subjective choices and the characteristics of auditory plasticity. The human brain selectively accepts or rejects sound signals everywhere, for example, a lover whispering on the road can “not hear” the urgent car bell behind them, or a student deserting to listen to the birds outside the window can “not hear” the teacher’s call. Taking advantage of the ear’s subjective ability to select sound, for tinnitus sufferers, constant exposure to sound and improved perception of normal sound with hearing aids can help distract patients from tinnitus, which is the basic principle of this therapy. Generally, after 12 to 18 months of treatment, the sensation of tinnitus can be filtered out of the patient’s consciousness. After tinnitus retraining treatment, although the tinnitus is still objectively present, it can help more than 80% of the patients to get rid of the physical and mental disturbances caused by tinnitus, and the treatment is stable with very few recurrences.