These Headphones Tell You If You're at Risk of Getting Tinnitus

[Samir]

That's the promise of a new technology developed by Plextek, a company based in the UK. They will have specially designed headphones that have the technology embedded in them, but they will also make it available as a gadget that can be inserted into regular headphones.

The way it works is it constantly monitors the Auditory Evoked Potentials (AEP) of the wearer. This information is relayed to the user's smartphone, where a dedicated app will inform the user about their AEP levels and warn them about early signs of inner ear damage.

It's essentially a portable, consumer grade ABR (Auditory Brain Response) system that constantly monitors and records these parameters in a smartphone.

I am so pleased to see that we are finally getting to a point where technology allows us to monitor many of our own medical parameters without a doctor's assistance, including blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, glucose level, and now auditory evoked potential. I wish this was available earlier.

More info here:
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/business/technology/how-your-headphones-could-tell-12880918

 

[Ecip]

I wonder what it would say with me.

 

[Samir]

I wonder what it would say with me.

Only one way to find out! I know I would be interested to see what an ABR, or even a more simple OAE test says about me. If nothing else, I would like to get a baseline measurement.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a private health care provider in Sweden or audiologist office that performs these tests. They do them at the hospitals. However, here in Sweden you can't even see a GP without convincing a nurse that you need that kind of medical attention.

Good luck getting to a specialist doctor! It took me 10 months to get to the ENT doctor at the hospital. It should not take more than 3 months, and this is like a law here. The amateurs that work here and call themselves nurses and doctors kept tossing me between different offices at the lower instances of the health care system.

Once they have all had their turn and poked at me, I finally got an appointment to see the "specialist". Who did nothing for me... used me like a dummy doll and a prime example of what happens when one is exposed to acoustic trauma. He had a student with him. He gave me a good hand shake and sent me off home. That's a specialty we all can learn! Even if there was an effective treatment for acute tinnitus or acute hearing loss, it would have been too late for me.

Public healthcare in Sweden sucks! It's good for children maybe and for the elderly. But even that is now questionable. I sure hope it will get privatized as soon as possible. I would gladly pay for my own treatments at private clinics, rather than rely on a public system that stopped working ages ago and that we all continue to pay for through taxes. Sweden has money, but our dumb politicians are putting our money in all the wrong places.

I will be going abroad next year and I plan on having my hearing properly checked at a private clinic. I will pay for everything out of my own pocket.

 

[Alue]

An ABR needs to be pretty loud to get a good definable wave 1. Looks interesting and it's really cool they are coming up with new ideas, but I'm still wondering how it compares to a normal ABR.

 

[Swing]

Hello Samir,

I know your feel with public medical care experience you are talking about. I went to neurologist and he told me to find neurologist.

If you are considering going abroad to solve your T I can give you a tip on Medical Healthcom in Prague (http://hlasovecentrum.cz/en/) . It is voice and hearing center marked as superspecialized and I saw many good reactions on them and they still got 5 stars on google. Otherwise I don't have any experience with them as I live on the other side of the republic but I consider them as my last chance. They are also specialised for tinnitus and I saw few interviews with head doctor (or how to call her) about T. Seems like she knows and she cares a lot about that.

There is not much info in english so I'll translate you the part about the check-up for T if you are interested.

I really don't know, what would be the price as I suppose that your health insurance company doesn't have contract with this facility.

 

[Samir]

An ABR needs to be pretty loud to get a good definable wave 1.

How loud? Hopefully not so loud that it causes more damage. Isn't it a click sound that they play at about 40 to 60 dB?

 

[Swing]

I somehow couldn't reply to you in that conversation so to your question:

They have modern audiologiccal chamber to measure hearing threshold and speech intelligibility check-up.
Device measuring otoacoustic emissions for screening hearing check-up.
Clinical tympanometer to check state of middle ear.

On their website there is just written that they do complex audiological check-up. In the article I've found that they do otoscopic check-up and entire audiometric check-up. So I guess yes.

They do (when you come with tinnitus) complex audiological check-up, RTG of C spine, intern check-up and check-up of lipid profile, ultrasound check-up of extracranial blood vessels and neurological check-up. If you have T just in one year, they will send you to MRI if it's not a tumor.

After that they'll decide for a treatment. Like excercises to unblock spine, some meds, infusion.

If you have hearing loss they'll send you to Otorhinolaryngology clinic in case of some operating improvement (plastic operation of ear drum in case of perforation, reimbursement of middle ear bones when Otosclerosi, Redevelopment operation in case of chronic middle ear inflammation).

Well I just took information from their website and from the article. Hope it's true. Sometimes I had troubles to even read it in my language so I hope I've translated it correctly ))

 

[Samir]

Thank you @Swing !

I wish we had a clinic like that in Sweden. Most of this is done at public hospitals here. But it is close to impossible to get an appointment to a specialist there. I know many people who go to other countries to get their doctor's check ups, usually during summer vacation.

Will you come along as my translator if I go there? Well hopefully they know enough English so that we can understand each other.

 

[Alue]

How loud? Hopefully not so loud that it causes more damage. Isn't it a click sound that they play at about 40 to 60 dB?

No that's like the minimum low click, you won't get a good wave I with only 60 db. I did an ABR but they couldn't get a wave I on me. Either it's diminished or they couldn't do it loud enough because of my hyperacusis. I think they jumped to 85 or 95 db and I told them enough that's too much. It gave me a good spike after the test. I should have just ripped out the damn earbuds when they "accidentally" jumped to the higher level. I've met some real nice audiologists that are real understanding, and I've met some assholes that think hyperacusis is entirely psychological.

 

[Samir]

No that's like the minimum low click, you won't get a good wave I with only 60 db. I did an ABR but they couldn't get a wave I on me. Either it's diminished or they couldn't do it loud enough because of my hyperacusis. I think they jumped to 85 or 95 db and I told them enough that's too much. It gave me a good spike after the test. I should have just ripped out the damn earbuds when they "accidentally" jumped to the higher level. I've met some real nice audiologists that are real understanding, and I've met some assholes that think hyperacusis is entirely psychological.

I am so sorry you had to endure that. That is unacceptable! I mean the way they treated you. I can somewhat relate to that. I had the acoustic reflex (AR) test at the hospital. I begged the ENT doctor to do some advanced test on me. Eitehr OAE or ABR. The best he was willing to offer me was AR.

So I met some young audiologist or whatever he was... I didn't exactly ask... and he didn't say. Just told me his name and shook my hand. He explained the test very briefly, and soon enough we started the test. I barely had the chance to tell him that I have tinnitus. I did, but it was waved away like nothing. He told me to tell him if it gets too loud. He was like on the clock and just wanted to get over with it. It was stressful for me, partly because he was rushing through it and partly because I was scared that it would be too loud and damage my hearing more, or worse... give me louder tinnitus.

So we started the test and he kept asking me, "you okay?" and I would respond "ok". The idiot just kept on going, not taking a pause or telling me what level we are at. "Tell me if it gets too loud?" How the hell should I know? I mean I could take it, but I do not know what my limit is. "Can we go higher?" he asked. I said well what are we at now?! I think he said like 65 or 75 dB. I said that's enough now, so we did the same thing with the other ear. I don't think I ever went past 75 dB and I could feel it becoming uncomfortable already at 70 dB.

I assume it was more traumatic for you, but I can somewhat relate to what you said. Some of these morons behave like this is nothing. Well, for them it's just a routine procedure. Just like it is laying out bricks for a bricklayer. But we know different.

 

[grate_biff]

I had the same experience when going through a test to establish if my inner ear muscles (stapedius) were vibrating or not. It was WAY to loud for me. I had to abort the test. WTF were they thinking?