Best Guess on When Tinnitus Will Be Cured?

Meh. Live every day as though it were your last, since it might be, and do whatever you can to live as fully and richly in the moment as possible, for the same reason.

Don't stress about mind boggling suffering; inevitable release awaits us all eventually at the end of this mortal coil

 

2050 for noise-induced hearing loss.

 

In the year 3000. Tinnitus will be abolished.

 

Stem cells are our only chance.

 

I think gene therapy more likely.

 

I agree. Although behind many other companies I think Decibel Therapeutics has real potential.

 

How would that help eliminate tinnitus?

 

Looking for the cure since 2013.

 

Different ways. I believe the most prevalent, and this is really, really simplified, is the genes are edited to allow for regeneration of the hearing organ.

 

Anyone care to update this thread for 2022?

 

And here we are 10 years later after I created this thread and still nothing

 

A treatment (Dr. Shore's device) is on the way though.

 

Does anybody truly believe that tinnitus is curable? Personally I don’t believe it is.

Given the fact that we have tinnitus, the real question is - is it possible to live a productive life with this condition. I believe that it is.

 

Based on the question as asked, I say never because I don't think there will be a 100% cure that works for everyone.

 

As I see it, there will never be a cure for tinnitus. In my opinion it is pretty much like asking scientists to regrow limbs for those who have lost them.

The goal has to be in helping us to cope effectively with this.

I myself am near the eight years mark after onset and have gone through times in which I completely forgot I suffered from the condition (despite my tinnitus being severe) and times like now in which I feel I'm losing my mind. I think it could be easier to find a way for those psychoemotional response fluctuations not to happen rather than thinking big and trying to suppress the noise for good.

 

My thought about a cure for tinnitus is that it will be possible but not in the near future. Hopefully, Susan Shore's device will help suppress the sound and make the tinnitus livable.

If we are able to regenerate hair cells and neurons in the future, I think tinnitus will be cured. I don't think this will happen within 15 years though. The question is also if regeneration will be offered to the general population. I think it will be a costly treatment.

 

To me, it appears that tinnitus is not "a medical condition", it's a symptom that's caused by many different problems. In modern western society, there are a lot of things that contribute to the problem.

Car airbags. They're a really stupid idea. You would never see them in race cars that travels at much higher speeds and often get slammed against a concrete wall. Airbags are a cheap way for car manufacturers to meet the federally mandated safety standards, rather than designing and building the cars better to protect the occupants. Whoever thought that a big bag exploding in someone's face was a good idea? I've seen so many small accidents that have demolished the entire car because they're using materials that are not strong enough. Manufacturers do this to cut costs, and a lighter car helps them in the MPG category. I'm just shocked by how poor the designs are for the driver and passengers. Plastic bumpers often fall off in minor fender benders and what's behind there is almost nothing.

Earbuds. Their speakers are so tiny that the wearer is forced to turn the volume way up. A good set of headphones can be listened to at lower volumes. They're bigger and more efficient because they cover the whole ear and block outside noises. You really have to crank up the volume on earbuds because ambient sounds get around them due to a one-size-fits-all design and an inability to work throughout the listening range.

Then there's boombox cars, video games played at high volume, music events that are way over the OSHA decibel limits, prescription meds that we know cause tinnitus, etc.

 

Ha! Probably never. It'll probably haunt us even when we're very much dead, buried 1000000 feet under.

 

When we are dead, it’ll be like before we were born, nothing. Fortunately for us, tinnitus will die when our brain shut down. So in our nothingness, it will be silence

 

I think saying tinnitus will never be cured is a bit melodramatic. There are thousands of conditions that are treatable now, that even 40 years ago were probably deemed too difficult to ever treat.

We’re not some outlier or special. We suffer from a medical condition and someday there will be a eureka moment for it, like many before it. We’re actually somewhat fortunate, compared to other people that suffer far more obscure conditions, as tinnitus will be a real problem in the near future for society due to the noisy lifestyles we lead nowadays.

Will we see a cure tomorrow? No. Will there ever be a cure? Very likely.

 

I don’t know if tinnitus will be ‘cured,’ but I definitely think there will be better treatments, specifically related to tinnitus caused by noise, hearing loss, etc.

 

Once objective measurements for tinnitus are online, it will mark the end for tinnitus. We will know which treatments work and which don’t very easily. No more BSers. I can see a snowball effect of rapid progress once we’re able to hear/detect/measure tinnitus.

 

But in the meantime, while we are waiting for any possible treatments, the crucial thing is NOT TO OBSESS ON IT, NOT TO KEEP CHECKING ON ITS VOLUME, JUST LET IT BE THERE - I PROMISE YOU - IGNORING IT CAN BECOME A VERY EFFECTIVE, AND DO-ABLE HABIT. My tinnitus is incredibly loud, but I rarely think about it these days. I didn’t think I would ever be able to say that.

Jazzer
Dave xx

 

My experience is similar, but my tinnitus may not be as loud as yours. I do not think about it much and if I do, and hear it, it doesn't bother me. The only concern I now have is to protect my ears from further damage, as best as possible.

 

Well done buddy x

I’m not on here very often these days - I have Parkinson’s to contend with - but it occurs to me that I would like to mention @fishbone once again. When I was at my wits’ end, full of fear, and full of tragic tears, he told me to hang on, and that I would eventually come through this horror story. ‘If he could do it - I could do it.’

“You made all the difference fishbone.”

And although we haven’t always seen things ‘eye to eye,’ it is high time that I thanked @Markku and @Hazel for keeping up the good work, and keeping this ‘show on the road.’ Please allow me to apologise for those times when in frustration, I became one ‘pain in the proverbial arse.’

Jazzer
Dave x

 

I think when we are in pain, or suffering, we all sometimes become a bit of a pain in the arse. That's why it is so important for human beings to have empathy, apologize when we need to, and give each other as much grace as we can.

 

Is your tinnitus bilateral? When you say loud, how would you objectify that? Decibels? Not masked by a shower?

As for when will tinnitus be "cured", that's not important to me. What is important is lowering the intensity to a manageable level. So with that said, I will go with 2029, and say there will be several treatments on the market by then. This is something Dr. Susan Shore said at the TRI 2019 conference: "In the next 10 years I think there will be several treatments that come to market that should be able to help all those people that are really counting on us."

I generally don't like to hear the word "cure" thrown around as it's childish.

 

Well Nick - bilateral yes, but louder on the left.

A shower wouldn’t even come close to masking it. If you look at my film on YouTube, you will see that the only equivalent match is an electric shaver held against my ear. If I ‘hiss match’ it to a decibel metre, it’s about 60 dB.

 

That was before the failures of Otonomy and Frequency Therapeutics. I wonder what she'd say now?

As I said on another thread, I don't think there is a cure coming anytime soon. However, I do think there will be a reasonably good treatment, probably within most of our lifetimes. I envisage it being a pill, taken when required, that reduces tinnitus (possibly to zero) for several hours. Part of the success of this pill will be little side effects.

A pill like this would give the user complete power over their tinnitus, choosing when they want to hear it, to aid habituation but also choosing when to quieten/cancel the signal to have temporary relief.