Restored Hearing's Sound Relief Tinnitus Sound Therapy

ENT Center of Austin - Doctor's Blog
Good News for Tinnitus Sufferers
What do Pete Townshend from The Who, Chris Martin from Coldplay and former U.S. President, Bill Clinton have in common?

They all have a ringing in their ears occasionally. It's known as temporary tinnitus. This type of momentary madness in your hearing hole is caused by music that's turned up to 12 or machines way above the level your ears can take. We at the ENT Center of Austin have some good stuff for you to listen to.



There Once Was A Company ...
A group of students, specializing in physics the University of Edinburgh and University College Dublin, managed a breakthrough when it comes to this momentary wallop from the ringing.

Their business is called Restored Hearing. The eggheads have come-up with a form of therapy that can fix temp tinnitus in nearly 100% of those they treat. Not stopping there, these academic folks are now launching a series of clinical trials at the University of Edinburgh to see if they can give relief to the chronic sufferers of this disease.

How do they do it for the folks that periodically experience the medical condition? Pretty simple, really. They play low-frequency sounds into the ear. That make the tiny hairs stand-up.

One of the Geniuses Explains
Eimear O'Carroll puts it this way, "Using sound, our therapy stimulates the inner ear to promote the re-straightening of the cochlear hairs that get bent or even broken when they are subjected to high intensity sound. When the cochlear hairs are bent over they interfere with each other and this interference is interpreted by the brain as sound, often in the complete absence of any sound. In 99% of cases the tinnitus of the sufferer was gone after one minute of our sound therapy."

She's a fourth year physics student in the University of Edinburgh alongside Rhona Togher and Physics teacher, Anthony Carolan, who developed this treatment.

Eimear goes on to say, "While investigating funding options for further research, it was suggested that we commercialize our therapy and set up a business. Being three scientists with no prior experience in business, setting up a company was a completely foreign thing. In the course of establishing Restored Hearing we have faced, but overcome, challenges in securing funding, getting insurance and making the public aware of our product and its benefits."

You may have experience with temporary tinnitus sometime in your life. It hits 92% of the population. It's caused when decibel levels are over-the-top. Not only that, it can bug you for a couple of days at a time. The near dog-whistle sound is caused when loud noises flatten those itsy-bitsy hairs inside the ear. The hairs interfere with each other. The brain tries to figure it out, and logs the chaos as a phantom noise.

Those who perceive this phantom noise may also be depressed. Antidepressant drugs can cause tinnitus occasionally. Another form of therapy that's been used since 2009 is called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). This one sends short pulses of magnetic fields to the brain.

No need for knock-out pills when undergoing the treatment. And once the procedure is finished, the patient can drive home without any side-effects. No memory loss or seizures, either. You might get a headache, but that can be relieved with acetaminophen.

We can figure-out why Pete Townshend and Chris Martin got it. We can only speculate that the former President came down with the issue by playing his sax too loud in the White House.

Original Source: http://austinentmd.com

 

Is this for real?

 

Its very hard to believe this will work..Not saying it wont either..

 

I dont understand. Hasnt all this been discussed on Page 1 of this thread? Is this just merry go round again on the same subject repeat repeat?

 

Wow. Glad I didn't waste money on this!

 

I called the place in Austin, they were real lax. Like no big deal, they didnt return my call. Someone else give a call ask about their tinnitus therapy...

 

Here's Dr. Nagler's response about this therapy
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/restored-hearing.4176/

 

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-...y-hearing-problems-seeing-solutions-1.2193248

Tinnitus therapy: hearing problems, seeing solutions
New tinnitus treatment can be used daily, through stimulation of the inner ear and by also providing a soothing sound


Sound women: Rhona Togher and Eimear O’Carroll preparing to launch a set of headphones with the relief therapy built in.

An Irish start-up is aiming to safeguard the nation’s hearing, by treating and ultimately preventing avoidable hearing loss.

Founded by Rhona Togher and Eimear O’Carroll, Restored Hearing’s original product came from a project for the BT Young Scientist competition, which earned them a runners-up spot in 2009; now the start-up is part of Telefonica’s accelerator project Wayra, and is also taking part in SOS Ventures’ Haxlr8r programme, aimed at hardware start-ups.

The company offers a tinnitus therapy programme that aims to help sufferers reduce their symptoms, which often present as a persistent ringing in the ears. Streamed online, the Sound Relief treatment can be used daily, stimulating the inner ear and providing a soothing sound.

Because it’s available online, users can access it around the world, and the first month’s therapy can be accessed free of charge.

It usually costs $50 (€45.9) a month for unlimited access, with discounts for signing up for three- or six-month periods.

“It takes a lot to convince someone to use something like this,” said Togher. “A lot of people have been scammed in the past, or spent a lot of money on it before.”

Initially, the therapy was aimed at temporary sufferers, but it emerged that permanent tinnitus sufferers were gaining the most benefit from the therapy. A longer sound therapy was developed and a clinical trial at the University of Edinburgh last summer proved successful, lending further credibility to the product.

Regular use of the sound therapy has been clinically proven to reduce the severity of the condition by about 15 per cent in the first month. That was using the therapy for only five minutes a day.

“We have a lot of people out there whose lives have been changed completely by this,” Togher says.

There’s a large market for successful treatments for the condition. You might think it will never affect you, but about 45,000 people in Ireland suffer from tinnitus, according to the Irish Tinnitus Association, and more than 300 million people around the world suffer from the condition.

That includes young people, who are suffering hearing damage from subjecting themselves to loud music and noisy environments without taking the proper precautions.

Now, Restored Hearing is preparing to launch a set of headphones with the Sound Relief therapy built in. That will suit those who prefer a physical product, including older customers, and allow the product to be sold in chemists and other stores rather than streamed online.

But prevention is better than cure, and the Restored Hearing team is hoping to prevent hearing loss before it begins, with new products on the way.

Tougher demonstrated a new insert that can be retrofitted to existing hearing protection, a mud-like material that improves the effectiveness of hearing protection. According to Togher, it’s up to eight times more effective, and can be used in a range of environments where hearing protection would be needed.

“It allows you to keep your headset on all day long, still have a conversation but also put on a jackhammer and still be protected. So it reacts,” says Togher.

To add it to existing hearing protection, you just have to remove the foam inserts and replace it with the Sound Bounce smart version.

Because it adapts to different environments, you can use the headset wherever you need to. The end result should be less hearing damage being diagnosed in the future. If people heed the warnings, there may be a lot fewer needing the company’s tinnitus therapy in the future.

 

To me, trying to cure an already injured inner ear by blasting it with more nonsense sounds very dumb. Sticking your finger in a wound doesn't make it heal faster.

 

It's always the ear the target, can we please stop targeting the ear and focus on the brain. It's fruitless focusing on the ear, as we can't regenerate hair cells just yet and even if we could, we still don't know if that will cure tinnitus. The point is, the brain is the money load .

 

I totally agree that the things that make tinnitus into a problem are brain issues, but I'm also optimistic that there will be treatments or even cures for straight-up hearing loss that might keep that from being as big a deal by the time I'm in my late 50s (25 years from now). I'm looking at you, Novartis!

 

25 years of tinnitus what do think will be left of a person with chronic T after 25 years?
I really hope they be some relief soon. The next generation will get the cure.

 

I've met a lot of people who have had T for a lot more than 25 years who seem pretty normal and happy...

 

Why is the company's name Restored Hearing?

They don't restore hearing? What a lie...!!

 

Please people, don't believe on everything what they say.

 

"In 99% of cases the tinnitus of the sufferer was gone after one minute of our sound therapy."

Sure....

Also, I checked this stuff out at some point, it's a 70 hz sine wave that they use to make the "itsy bitsy hairs stand up" ....Jesus...!

 

I happened upon this thread and noticed, in particular, the sentence where severing the nerve of his ear is mentioned. When I went to an ENT recently he mentioned that "back in the day" they use to use such a drastic procedure on a person with T and the result was that they STILL had the tinnitus.

It is difficult to believe that physicians would still offer up such a remedy and give false hope.

 

Has anyone tried the sound therapy offered at www.restoredhearing.com ?

Sounds interesting and certainly worth trying the free trial.

 

I have just recently gotten hearing aids which also provide sound therapy. I do feel it's helping me. Reduced noise levels and more quiet days each week. This is still early on for me, but so far I am happy with some relief.

 

That's good to read. How much hearing loss do you have? And what hearing aids are you using?

I have been trying a Widex model with Zen.