ForgTin to Forget Tinnitus: Reviews / Experiences? Does It Work?

I stumbled on news about an Austrian company testing a piece of metal behind the ear to suppress tinnitus, full text in German below:

ForgTin: 3D-gedruckter Bügel soll Tinnitus erträglicher machen

Anyone from Austria here who could get to know more about it? Maybe some members could volunteer to participate in the clinical trial? It seems a different approach to treating tinnitus than regular sound therapies.

I add a link to producer site:

https://forgtin.com/

 

“The 3D-printed bracket stimulates "three essential pressure points" during the day, which is supposed to set in motion a "unlearning process" that reduces the continuous neuronal fire in the brain and thus leads to the chronic tinnitus being forgotten.”

Sounds scammy.

They are having clinical trials? It’s already for sale on their website.

 

They started clinical trials in October with an aim to finish in August 2021. Meanwhile they will start selling it as of November this year.

 

So the shop on the site is pre-orders then? I don’t know German, I just put it in Google translator.

 

If it helps even slightly with the tinnitus level, then 600 euros seems an OK price.

If it's a complete scam, this is an extremely overpriced scam...

 

The founder/creator of ForgTin claims to have suffered from tinnitus for 19 years and is now tinnitus free...

The first non-clinical study showed that the subjective tinnitus of the participants was reduced between 30 - 100% within a few weeks.

It will be available next week. They sell it because they got so many requests from tinnitus sufferers. So they start selling the model from the first non-clinical study.

P.S. Personally I don't think this works. I wish it did, but I don't think so.

 

Does "two-armed, randomised, clinical study" include placebo control?

 

If @Contrast confirms it's not a scam, then it might be good.

 

I would be very interested in knowing more about this. I'll be watching this thread closely.

 

Just pure pressure? No electrodes, no sound, no signal? How can this work? How can simple pressure in three points of the ear without further stimulus lead the neurons to unlearn the tinnitus? Perhaps it can help tinnitus cases that are responsive to tapping or acupuncture?

A clinical trial until August 2021? That long?

I'm very sceptical about this. Unfortunately, I'm 99% sure this won't work for me. However, I'll look at the clinical trial results with interest. I hope I'm wrong and my scepticism is ill-posed.

 

For the last hour, I've been reading what's out there on the internet about this product.

The upside is that they seem to want to find a permanent solution to tinnitus and they're actively pursuing silence, not just "tinnitus relief" (God, I hate that phrase) or "managing your tinnitus".

The downside is that I don't understand the science behind it, so I have a really hard time seeing how it could work.

It also seems to me that you're not supposed to wear that thing when you sleep, which means that I'm still going to have sleepless nights. My tinnitus bothers me the most during the night, so this was a real downer.

However, unless this is a scam, I think this is the best product I've come across since Lenire. I'll be watching it closely and I think I'm also going to send them an email with some questions to get an impression of their operation.

 

I don't believe it. It seems like a more sophisticated self-medication approach along the lines of R David Case's Tinnitus Mix insofar as it was created by a guy who got tinnitus and then tried every conceivable mad scientist treatment. Note that it was a NON clinical trial. I want more rigorous testing and testimonials before I get my hopes up.

And really, there are plenty of one-off anecdotes of people who tried X or Y and say they "cured" their tinnitus, and they may very well have, but along the lines of going to Vegas and winning the slots. Not necessarily reproducible.

 

Yeah like Liam Boehm's tinnitus. Dude experienced fading after the passage of time and thinks that he cured tinnitus with dieting and supplements.

 

I don’t really trust any product that has a part of the word “tinnitus” in it (it screams scam). But I haven’t researched this one.

 

Pressure points for tinnitus? I will remain skeptical about this until some real clinical studies come out about it.

It seems interesting, but unlikely.

 

How is this different than acupuncture?

 

The 'good' thing about this would be (if it works) that that guy had his tinnitus for 19 years, so basically a long time sufferer.

 

I'm thinking this is more like acupressure incorporating point SI 19 into the treatment.

Wouldn't surprise me if the inventor had undergone a course of something similar in the past prompting him to try and fix up a device on the 3D printer.

 

"Forgtin users can use a smartphone app to support them, which guides them through the first few weeks with Forgtin. The app provides tips and information and also serves as a tinnitus diary. Users can track the course of their tinnitus and find out what other factors, such as stress, emotions, jaw and neck tension also affect tinnitus. The better users know their own tinnitus, the easier it will be for them to learn to control it."

Source: https://www.devicemed.de/medizinprodukt-lindert-beschwerden-von-tinnitus-patienten-a-971384/

Why would we still need an app to remind us that stress / emotions and tension are still big factors in tinnitus when the device they are proposing practically should reduce tinnitus significantly according to their own data?

Wouldn't we be able to mimic the same pressure with our fingers / acupuncture?

 

I guess you could, but that would mean keeping pressure all day with you fingers. Not very convenient.

 

As someone who has tried acupuncture and chiropractor with no positive effect, I'll wait for the clinical trials to come out. I mean if a bit of pressure behind the ears is all it took to alleviate tinnitus you'd think it would have been worked out a long time ago.

 

Obviously not - but wouldn't that mean the tinnitus would go away if we just tried applying pressure there? Or does it only work after a couple of days of constant pressure (not at night though)?

 

I tried acupuncture once and it just gave me a sore ear.

 

I already made my mind up about this product after looking into it carefully. I emailed their team asking for studies and they asked who I was and didn't give them to me. The only thing I can say is wait until their 2021 Clinical Trial publishes results.

This is their claimed statement on the product's efficacy:


I strongly advise everyone at this moment in time not to purchase this product. We will decide once they show us proper information. This company does not contain any of the hallmarks associated with most ecommerce scams. They do not use affiliate marketing, flood advertisement, propagandish video sales letters, Fiverr actors etc... so let's just wait and see how things turn out with them.

 

HAHA! They asked who you were before they would provide any evidence? Doesn't sit right with me...

 

Their clinical trial just went up:

Safety and Efficacy of Acupressure Applied Through ForgTin© in Patients With Tinnitus

 

Isn't there something wrong with the study? If group 2 doesn't receive any device, how can they know that any improvement in group 1 isn't a placebo effect?

 

Based off the model description: "Group 2 receives no initial treatment for a duration of three months (Phase I). This Phase I is followed by a Washout period of one month and by an interventional phase (Phase II)."

It looks like Group 2 will be receiving treatment after no intervention and washout. They don't specify how long Phase II will be but I'm assuming three months like Phase I.

 

Ok but that doesn't solve the problem.

Basically, the way it is done, we won't be able to know whether their device is actually doing something or if it is just the placebo effect.

This is a joke... One year for such a study...

What they should have done is:
- split into two groups (blind)
- give Group 1 the actual device.
- give Group 2 a similar looking device, without the appropriate acupressure points.
- get results from Group 1 and Group 2 and compare.

This is basic science...my gosh

 

It's called a Lenire style study. A whole new paradigm for the sciences.