Why So Many Hearing Loss Companies I Am Hearing About?

[IAmCalifornia]

wow so since my tinnitus onset, and deciding to join this forum, I suddenly know more about how an ear works than I believe I should. It has become an obsession. Tinnitus is very tough to deal with. But so I checked the research part of this forum, and I'm reading about all sorts of companies. Frequency Therapeutics (which I saw on the news), Audio, Otonomy, Decibel, etc..

And so I check all of these companies' websites and if i'm mistaken let me know, but it seems they are all working on helping those with hearing loss and maybe tinnitus!

How are there so many companies working on this? Is there something they have discovered and are refining? I guess what I'm getting at is how am I reading about all of these companies doing this crazy research suddenly?

My ENT that I saw told me in a VERY BLUNT way that there is no cure, only to get used to it or maybe tinnitus retrain therapy which is not covered by my insurance....

 

[Rubenslash]

It was discovered in the 80s that birds regenerate their hair cells naturally. Since then, research has always been ongoing to achieve the same in the ears of mammals and more specifically humans. After all these years, it seems that we now reached a point where several independent researchers developed (or are developing) treatments that might work on humans, which is why we can expect several clinical trials on regeneration in the next 5 years.

Why aren't ENTs mentioning this? Because firstly, it's all still pre-clinicial trial and thus several years away if one of them will be sucessful. Secondly, it are treatments for hearing loss, not tinnitus. Although some believe (with good reason) that these treatments can at least lower the intrusiveness of the tinnitus. I am sure they are aware of the research though, my brother studies medicine and he did learn a (tiny) bit about hair cell regeneration.

 

[threefirefour]

wow so since my tinnitus onset, and deciding to join this forum, I suddenly know more about how an ear works than I believe I should. It has become an obsession. Tinnitus is very tough to deal with. But so I checked the research part of this forum, and I'm reading about all sorts of companies. Frequency Therapeutics (which I saw on the news), Audio, Otonomy, Decibel, etc..

And so I check all of these companies' websites and if i'm mistaken let me know, but it seems they are all working on helping those with hearing loss and maybe tinnitus!

How are there so many companies working on this? Is there something they have discovered and are refining? I guess what I'm getting at is how am I reading about all of these companies doing this crazy research suddenly?

My ENT that I saw told me in a VERY BLUNT way that there is no cure, only to get used to it or maybe tinnitus retrain therapy which is not covered by my insurance....

Wow sorry your ENT was so awful. I should warn you TRT is at least as useless as ENTs if not worse. All these companies are working on hearing loss, which won't fix Tinnitus. Us tinnitus sufferers know that fixing hearing loss won't fix tinnitus, but the normal people need to realize this first by fixing hearing loss and realizing it doesn't work. Then we can work on tinnitus if they care enough.

 

[GregCA]

Us tinnitus sufferers know that fixing hearing loss won't fix tinnitus

No, we don't. We also don't know that it will fix it.

 

[Pomme]

No, we don't. We also don't know that it will fix it.

Exactly. There is so much that is still unknown about T and H. Maybe research will get lucky and find a route quickly to the answer.

 

[Tinker Bell]

Wow sorry your ENT was so awful. I should warn you TRT is at least as useless as ENTs if not worse. All these companies are working on hearing loss, which won't fix Tinnitus. Us tinnitus sufferers know that fixing hearing loss won't fix tinnitus, but the normal people need to realize this first by fixing hearing loss and realizing it doesn't work. Then we can work on tinnitus if they care enough.

Not exactly true. My tinnitus is a direct result of hearing loss. I would be thrilled with a cure for hearing loss.

 

[threefirefour]

Not exactly true. My tinnitus is a direct result of hearing loss. I would be thrilled with a cure for hearing loss.

Funny that I have no hearing loss and bad tinnitus. I've restored my hearing too. I don't think it's going to make much of a difference

 

[Tinker Bell]

Funny that I have no hearing loss and bad tinnitus. I've restored my hearing too. I don't think it's going to make much of a difference

Did you initially have hearing loss? How did you restore it?

 

[threefirefour]

Did you initially have hearing loss? How did you restore it?

Idk my hearing got unclogged. I had ETD. I think that was the trigger but I got it tested and there was no hearing loss up to 19khz.

 

[Contrast]

Wow sorry your ENT was so awful. I should warn you TRT is at least as useless as ENTs if not worse. All these companies are working on hearing loss, which won't fix Tinnitus. Us tinnitus sufferers know that fixing hearing loss won't fix tinnitus, but the normal people need to realize this first by fixing hearing loss and realizing it doesn't work. Then we can work on tinnitus if they care enough.

@threefirefour want to make a bet, once Frequency's stage 2 trial is active this question will be answered.
I honestly do see reasons to believe that if the hair cell synapse connection is repaired it will put some dent in tinnitus due to noise induced hearing loss.


I already thought of what will happen to the loser of the bet, but don't worry we ain't gonna know till like 2020.

 

[Contrast]

Idk my hearing got unclogged. I had ETD. I think that was the trigger but I got it tested and there was no hearing loss up to 19khz.

That's because your tinnitus was triggered by neck jaw misalignment. The same neurons that connect to the audiotory nerve also play role in the neck and jaw muscles.

 

[dpdx]

It was discovered in the 80s that birds regenerate their hair cells naturally. Since then, research has always been ongoing to achieve the same in the ears of mammals and more specifically humans. After all these years, it seems that we now reached a point where several independent researchers developed (or are developing) treatments that might work on humans, which is why we can expect several clinical trials on regeneration in the next 5 years.

Why aren't ENTs mentioning this? Because firstly, it's all still pre-clinicial trial and thus several years away if one of them will be sucessful. Secondly, it are treatments for hearing loss, not tinnitus. Although some believe (with good reason) that these treatments can at least lower the intrusiveness of the tinnitus. I am sure they are aware of the research though, my brother studies medicine and he did learn a (tiny) bit about hair cell regeneration.

It is more profitable for people to have hearing aids than this cure.