When I showed up at Dr. Wilden's clinic in Regensburg on the 5th day of treatment, the audiologist at the clinic asked me specifically to get an audiogram done. I was a bit surprised - but positively so - since an audiogram would be an indicator as to whether the treatment works or not. Keep in mind that, at that stage, I was still skeptical as to whether the treatment would work or not. So I did the audiogram. And indeed, after just four days of therapy, I could already spot the first early indications of an improvement (see audiogram from June 14th in this post):
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-introduction.1862/#post-39035
The clinic is/was quite "strict" about doing audiograms because they want to ensure that the therapy is working as it should. So if a person does not experience any improvements after the first 5 sessions or so, then they don't want to continue to waste the patient's money. However, in my opinion, anyone doing the therapy
will experience an improvement in their hearing threshold. And that is also what one of the audiologists told me (ie. it is biologically impossible not to gain an improvement). But they still insist on being able to document that improvement (for the patient's benefit).
Speaking of "money" - as you mentioned earlier on - this is something I have not really given a lot of thought on in any of my posts (they have all been focused on the therapy itself and the results); costs have taken a "secondary" place, in other words. But at the end of the day, treatment costs play as an important factor as treatment results. And so looking at the therapy from a cost-benefit point-of-view, I would probably describe it as "pricey" and possibly even as "money not well spent" ie. I did 10 hours of clinic laser therapy and also bought a home laser - both of which at the end of day did not bring about any change in my tinnitus (during the two month period). But you could also look at it this way: suppose the treatment does show results after 6 months or so, then perhaps the treatment
is fair value (after all, the advantage of a home laser is that you can keep using it "free of charge" after you bought it). But the advantage of the clinic therapy is that it speeds up the recovery process quite considerably. There are treatment protocols based on the Arndt-Schultz law of pharmacology that explain why this is (I have commented on this within the LLLT thread elsewhere on this site). Dr. Wilden uses treatment protocols which are in the upper range of cold laser therapy (cold laser therapy range = 0 - 500 mw). This is the output range in which lasers are considered to have a therapeutic effect. If you go beyond that output, you will start to have a detrimental effect (ie. you move from cold laser to hot laser territory). There are also other factors such as wavelength, treatment duration, and laser beam focus which play a role.
I was never under the impression that Dr. Wilden was after my money. He specifically said that I should start with just five sessions to begin with (instead of the recommended 10). He also asked me to wait a while before making the home laser purchase. The purchase was my decision. Not his.
I drove down to Regensburg for my 11th visit to the clinic on the 5th of August, 2013 in order to get one last audiogram done (but no clinic therapy this time). The audiogram showed further improvement. As I got back into my car, and closed the door, I awaited the usual piercing tinnitus whine that would develop when shielded from noise. But on this very day, at that very moment, for the first time, I experienced a specific change in my tinnitus loudness and intrusion level. As I drove back to Leipzig (300 km) I had many reflections as to whether I should continue with the therapy or move onto stem cells instead. The drop in my tinnitus level did not continue to last. And hence I decided to consider LLLT "a closed chapter" a few days later. But I still clearly recall that specific moment on a sunny afternoon day in Regensburg.
I probably do wish that I had given LLLT a bit more thought back then. However, in my defense, I had done everything that was asked of me (x 3). I wish that there would be more high-end cold laser therapy studies done in order to establish a more reliable treatment protocol. Before deciding on a purchase, I would recommend you perhaps speak with the owner of the following website
http://healingmenieres.wordpress.com for her reflections on the Luminex laser.
I would also like to share one piece of information about my audiograms that I haven't mentioned before: for my audiogram on the 14th of June, you will notice a 50db hearing loss for my bone conduction test, left ear; this is no accident - I deliberately decided not to push the button during the audiology exam as I wanted to see if my audiogram data was somehow being manipulated by the clinic. This was evidently not the case.
If you are based in the US, then I recommend possibly having a look at the AM101 clinical trial. At least that does not cost anything...
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