I think there will be someday. The most difficult hurdle for researchers and drug developers is the difficulty in accessing the inner ear; it's enclosed in the temporal bone, which happens to be the hardest bone in the body. Going through the ear is your next option, which means potential damage to the tympanic membrane, ossicles, etc. And forget about imaging the cochlea; the best we have is electrocochleography and otoacustic emissions, which aren't as ideal as we'd like.
There are some pharmaceuticals in clinical trials, however most are many years (if not decades) from becoming available, in the event that they develop something successful. The most promising drug a few months back was something called FX-322, which theoretically works by taking the supporting cells in the cochlea and essentially turning them on so that they can undergo mitosis and generate new hair cells within the ear. However, their phase 2 trials' 90-day readout showed no benefit vs. placebo (which they have surmised as being a fault in study design and dosing) which has gotten all the people at
tinnitustalk.com in a frenzy. It will be seen in future studies whether or not the drug really works in humans. There are other drugs in trials by other companies such as Otonomy, but most are in the proof-of-concept stage/being tested in mice. My prediction is: ~10 years. Time will tell, but that's what I imagine. It could be earlier, but I have my doubts. Honestly, I try not to think too much about it even if it's hard. When something proves itself to work safely, it'll create a big splash, and I'll certainly hear about it.
