DIY Low-Level Laser Therapy for Tinnitus on a Budget — LLLT Under 100,-

[Bobby B]

the best is to post audiograms like the above poster did - this will show how LLLT can improve hearing loss

 

[Reinier]

Who is in?

I am happy to report. I was planning on doing so anyway.
But for me it has only been one month. That is the reason I did not yet report any experiences.
If anything, at the moment, I feel hyperacusis and tinnitus are getting worse.

 

[Bobby B]

If you have noise damage and do light therapy it's very important you protect your ears from everyday noise - above 60db - if not its not going to work well or not bring any results at all.

This will help healing and bring H down over time

Above 60db means pretty much everywhere apart from at home, quiet office or quiet restaurant .

 

[Reinier]

I know there are two schools of thought.
One is warning against using protection to readily. At the moment my hearing is only exposed to low sound levels.
I am inclined (instinctively?) to protect my ears when sounds are uncomfortable (kitchen, shower, etc...).

I wonder if there are statistics that confirm one theory or the other.
I am not (yet?) prepared to slowly try to increase higher sound levels. It is just to uncomfortable and I am not yet convinced this will improve my hyperacusis.

I will continue LLLT and see what the situation is in two months time.

 

[Bobby B]

Yes take it slow. No rush ! You cannot force your ears to loud sounds until the healing period is over and this can take 3 - 4 years ...

 

[Foncky]

Bobby, do you consider dental work as loud ? It's pretty much the only "loud" sound I can't avoid right now, as I have several teeth that need treatment.

 

[Bobby B]

Not sure - wear good plugs and take NAC before and after and do LLLT after - LLLT can help recover hair cells shortly after trauma like a week or so

 

[Foncky]

Plugs are not really an option, the bone conduction is very bad with it.

But yes I take NAC and magnesium, thank you.

 

[Marlino]

@Reinier :
These different schools might be true both.
I think moderate sounds will not harm your ears. Since nobody knows the treshold to be prudence is best. But that every a little bit louder than whisper sound will harm your progress I don't believe. This is most likely paranoia which seems to be common here on TT.

But anyway silence will not harm you as long as you can enjoy it.

Sometimes I can, sometimes my T is too much

 

[Marlino]

I will create a new thread for lllt progress monitoring and providing sheets there for participants to post formal progress information (similar to am101 sheets)

 

[Marlino]

@Foncky i have T now for 6 month. Had to do some new fillings one month ago.
Had definetly no effect on my T. Even though my ear periodically feels sore and I consider it as traumatized.

 

[Foncky]

Unfortunately I have extreme reactive T and severe H, so the drilling is not so smooth for me

Just wonder if it can cause permanent damage and make LLLT useless.

 

[Marlino]

I have extreme reactive T and severe H,

I had reactive T in the beginning. It sucks infinitely.
I for myself am not sure about the reasons for that, is it nerve related beeing overwhelmed by T or is it some inner ear thing? Anyway, maybe it RT and H still settles down and you can postpone your dentist appointment for some month.

 

[Marlino]

Just wonder if it can cause permanent damage and make LLLT useless.

I just wonder if LLLT is useless in general; )

 

[Foncky]

Me too ! But well, it does not seem dangerous if you're careful so it's pretty much the only thing I see right now.

I postponed the dental work for several months, but now I have to... T and H got worse in between. Not what I expected !

 

[Reinier]

I will create a new thread for lllt progress monitoring and providing sheets there for participants to post formal progress information (similar to am101 sheets)

I will be participating

 

[Reinier]

But anyway silence will not harm you as long as you can enjoy it.

I never understood and still do not understand why too little sound can be negative for hyperacusis.
What mechanism could be at work? Brain or inner ear? Most likely brain would be my guess.

 

[Foncky]

When your leg is almost broken, it only takes a few small steps to finish the job. So I'd say cells or nerves.

 

[GregCA]

I never understood and still do not understand why too little sound can be negative for hyperacusis.

The way I understand it is: if your brain doesn't hear sounds, it tries to "turn up the gain" on the channel to hear better (it thinks it's missing out on stimuli), which increases the sensitivity to sounds (i.e. "make them louder!"), which negatively affects H.

 

[Reinier]

Is this not a theory for tinnitus?

which increases the sensitivity to sounds

But which sounds? Sound is not getting to the brain any more because of damage in the inner ear?
Or has it got something to do with outer hair cells that could be damaged?

 

[GregCA]

Is this not a theory for tinnitus?

But which sounds? Sound is not getting to the brain any more because of damage in the inner ear?
Or has it got something to do with outer hair cells that could be damaged?

Yes it's a theory for T, and apparently T & H are correlated somehow (although the causation path is still unclear).

The sounds are the sounds that would normally reach the brain: some people with H try to actively suppress the input stimuli (by protecting their ears), thus reducing the amount of sounds that reach the brain. One hypothesis (that is controversial, I know), is that by doing that they are hurting their H (due to the explanation above).
The reduction in sound may be voluntary (as the person deliberately plugs their ears), or not (if there are losses in the way to the brain, whether conductive or sensorineural).

 

[Pleasure_Paulie]

I've got a mild dip in hearing above 8000hz (probably whats caused the tinnitus). Would the lucky laser and LLLT be something that could help?

 

[Marlino]

I just tried to create a new thread about lllt user reporting.

It was deleted:

Your thread lllt user reports was deleted. Reason: please use the existing thread, there aren't enough LLLT users to merit a thread like this

I don't get it. There are so many junk threads and this one is deleted?

 

[Marlino]

Here my thread text:

Many people are using lllt. It is one of the main experimental treatments for tinnitus.

Efficacy of lllt is questionable but risks are low and alternatives are few.
Moreover the lllt-do-it-yourself thread showed, that you can build your lllt device for less than 30 bucks (e.g.5mW 650nm for overnight treatment).

There are many threads arguing (or better battling) about the effects of lllt on tinnitus.
In this thread I ask lllt users to report their experiences in a standardized form. Listed below are two forms: one for the initial case to be filled in once and one for periodical updates (either weekly or monthly).

Maybe this gives affected people a better idea whether or not and how they shall try lllt.



-----------------------intial lllt user report:--------------------------------

- tt since when:

- assumed tt origin:

- tt description (left/right, high/low, tonal/hissing, constant/changing, reactive...):

- perceived tt level:

- other ailments (hyper-accusis, ear pain, depression... ):


- lllt device/therapie:

- lllt protocoll description:

- lllt already in use?:
- since when:
- results:

- other medication/treatments used:

- other relevant remarks:



-----------------------periodical lllt user report:--------------------------------

- weeks since lllt begin:

- perceived tt level since last report:

- change in tt description since last report:

- other relevant remarks:

 

[Marlino]

-----------------------intial lllt user report:--------------------------------

- tt since when: Feb2016

- assumed tt origin: unknown

- tt description (left/right, high/low, tonal/hissing, constant/changing, reactive...):
mainly left ear. high pitched hissing or screeching, changing (every day its different level), not reactive anymore.
- perceived tt level:
4-7
- other ailments (hyper-accusis, ear pain, depression... ):
slight ear pain or a least strange feeling

- lllt device/therapie:
650nm 5mW and 150mW (both self buildt)
- lllt protocoll description:
5mW 7hours every night. 150mW sporadically for maybe 30min.
- lllt already in use?: yes
- since when: 1 week
- results: none

- other medication/treatments used:
various supplements
- other relevant remarks:
have had mild T (2-3) 10 years ago which subsided completely (!) after about 12 month.
T was reactive in the beginning. T can only but very effectively be masked with cicada sounds.

 

[GregCA]

For those of you LLLT DIYers who want to report progress. Please download a hearing test app to get an audiogram to measure your progress. Don't rely on your "feeling" for your hearing (I know that's all you have for your T): you want an objective measurement. I use Mimi Hearing Test on iOS (it's free).
Plus, it's a great tool to have to keep track of your hearing (whether it gets better or worse). I used to do daily audiograms, but I find that a bit too granular. I'm doing weekly now.

As a geek I combine my audiograms into a movie (with ffmpeg) that I can play to get a sense of trend. My neurotologist was impressed when I showed him the movie!

 

[Marlino]

I use Mimi Hearing Test on iOS (it's free).

Thx. I will check and post results. Actually Doc Wilden mainly claims to improve hearing with lllt. So results are interesting, even though I don't care about my hearing (just about T level)

 

[Reinier]

Your thread lllt user reports was deleted. Reason: please use the existing thread, there aren't enough LLLT users to merit a thread like this

I was surprised to read that there are not enough LLLT users.
I will report in approximately two months on an existing LLLT thread.

 

[Marlino]

hearing test from today. Will do the future tests with same setup. Unfortunately it's only covering up to 8khz.
This audiogram is inline with the one done in ent clinic 4 month ago.

 

[GregCA]

hearing test from today. Will do the future tests with same setup. Unfortunately it's only covering up to 8khz.
This audiogram is inline with the one done in ent clinic 4 month ago.

Thanks for doing this. Don't feel too bad about only covering up to 8 kHz... when I went to the audiologist to do a high frequency hearing test, she told me that even her equipment was not good for too high frequencies (let's say above 10-12 kHz). Basically the speaker/headphone system needs to be able to reproduce those very high frequency sounds, and that is not common.
It's already a very valuable piece of information to know if it works for < 8 kHz.