The sounds that people with tinnitus varies from person to person. Has your dad been to an ENT yet to have his hearing checked or to see if he has some sort of blockage in his ears do to excessive ear wax. Has he been exposed to really loud environments for extended period of time if so he probably has some inner ear damage.

As far as help goes there are coping strategies he could try such as reducing the amount of stress by exercising or massage therapy. He could try chiropractic care for any neck or back issues, Tinnitus Retraining Therapy, white noise maskers, reducing sodium/caffeine levels, vitamin therapy, etc...

Some suffers see a therapist who can prescribe medications such as Xanax or anticonvulsant that seem to help reduce the tinnitus and relaxes them so they can sleep.

I recommend starting off going to the doctor and using maskers to minimize the sound as much as possible. The American Tinnitus Association has more information as well. I am sorry that this may not be as helpful as you were hoping, but there isn't a cure for tinnitus so all any of us can do is find ways to cope that are helpful and give us some piece of mind.

He sounds like a good candidate for Neuromonics. There are noises programmed in it to help mask the tinnitus and reduce it.

http://neuromonics.com

If you find a local ENT office who uses Neuromonics it is a good start. Then apply for the patient assistance program at the hospital, it is based on your income to how much percentage of a discount you get on the hospital services. If you get 50% coverage, you will get 50% off the price. I got mine for $850 with my percentage, and then went to 100% coverage with them and got the device and the programming for free. The device is a few thousand.

its not available in Canada. How much has it helped????