Hi
@Christian78 - good to hear from you again. About LLLT, or any other therapy in the broadest sense, it is difficult for me to suggest anything as there are - as we all know - no proven mass-market intervention/drug/therapy that works towards the reduction of symptoms of tinnitus. So it would be irresponsible of me to recommend any approach to take - especially if it concerns drugs that come with side-effects.
In the case of regenerative medicine (incl. LLLT), I can say, however, that side-effects are near zero and not permanent. So the "only" thing a person stands to lose in taking such an approach is money (which of course is also significant variable for most people). About the therapy as practiced by a particular laser expert in Norway - or any other country where audiology is not used for tracking progression - I can say that such clinicians are applying the therapy blindly (which in my opinion is not the correct approach to take). Dr. Wilden is as far as I know one of the few practitioners of LLLT where an audiometric assessment is made (as part of the therapy). The point of the audiometric assessment is not to show an improvement in hearing, but, to show that the therapy is working (by showing an improvement in hearing). The difference may seem subtle, but, there is a difference. And it is for this reason that Dr. Wilden is perhaps the best doctor out there (in relation to LLLT and inner ear disorders). He also uses audiometric assessment up to and including 12,5 kHz.
However, LLLT has to the best of my knowledge never been continually and reliably demonstrated to work against tinnitus. Either it doesn't work or the patient enrollment numbers were too small to identify sub-group tendencies. Or the etiology of patients were poorly chosen. Or perhaps the laser protocol followed (incl. dosage) in the various studies was too asymmetric to demonstrate efficacy. Regardless, we don't really know if LLLT works against tinnitus. We do know that it works towards restoration of cell function (incl. also inner ear cells). So that much is known and has been reliably demonstrated in the scientific literature. But tinnitus is a different beast to deal with.
My only point of criticism of Dr. Wilden is that he now is practicing in Ibiza - and - to the best of my knowledge, the audiometric assessment is no longer of the same quality it used to be (when he practiced in Regensburg, Germany).
Later this year we may see further information on AM-102. The Pittsburgh scientific community is in reverse gear at the moment (i.e. SF0034, RL-81 and Knopp Biosciences). So... at the moment AM-102 is potentially - and for a long while to come - the only potential treatment on the horizon. However, having AM-101 difficulties is not going to make the life easier for a clinical stage pharma company like Auris Medical. So in a worst case scenario, AM-102 may also end up seeing delays - but that is purely speculative on my part.
So... if I were the worldwide tinnitus community right now, I would probably go the TinnitusTalk newsfeed and rate that post on AM-102 that was released in the later part of last year (in order to create some awareness).
All the best to everyone.