Solsaem Clinic (Dr. Minbo Shim) Experience

I think hearing aids can actually make tinnitus worse.

 

In the long term, yes, I totally agree. It's similar to chemotherapy. Yes it can solve the current problem, but can also cause new problems in the future. Some parts of medicine are pretty screwed up.

 

Interesting case, another sean. I've been looking at those exact hearing aids myself to treat the T. I've been wearing regular hearing aids and they do lower the T, but they also are a bit of a hassle.

I actually came across this trial from a facebook tinnitus group where participants are asked to trial the Lyric hearing aid for 14 days and fill in a questionnaire at the end:

https://www.cubex.co.uk/news/participate-tinnitus-trial-24-7-sound-enrichment-tinnitus-relief

I'm considering using them mainly because they could help sleep. They're quite pricey as well, they cost about $300 a month and they need to be replaced by an audiologist every few months.

Obviously I'd rather fix my ears.

 

Hi,

According to my experience... for us who have severe hearing loss (20 dB lower frequencies - 90 dB higher frequencies) + severe tinnitus, hearing aids are super helpful for both conditions.

Severe hearing loss means you don't hear sounds anymore... or you hear them at very low volume. And if you have developed tinnitus at the same time that means... suddenly all your brain hears now are tinnitus sounds. All you have in your head are this terrible tinnitus sounds. I was without hearing aids for first two years after my hearing loss, and it was nightmare. Because your brain suddenly doesn't hear normal sounds anymore, but instead mostly just tinnitus sounds. But with hearing aids, normal sounds come again, so your brain now has more "choice", it is not just tinnitus sound available. And that is very very helpful and big relief, because attention of the brain is now also on good sounds.

Also for me hearing aids are protection for my ears. I am sometimes working in loud environment. And when outside sound is too loud so that it can potentially further harm my hearing, my hearing aids acts like protection. They act like earplugs.

Maybe this is not the right tread to write about this so administrator can move my post, but since you mentioned hearing aids...

Otherwise I wish you have success with your treatment. For myself, I am giving most of my hopes in Frequency Therapeutics treatment. I would give anything for even 10-20 dB of my hearing back. Even if somebody proposes me option to choose tinnitus for the rest of my life, or 10 dB increase in hearing I would immediately accept better hearing. Thanks also for your contribution in Frequency Therapeutics thread and also other threads. I have been reading this forum a lot for last 2-3 years, but this is my first post.

 

What brand and type of hearing aids do you use at the moment?

 

Widex company - small completely in-ear-canal hearing aids.
They cost me 2500 EUR each.
I can check later in detail the correct name, now have to go to work.

 

Ervin64,

Thanks for your reply. I certainly would like to know the model you have and if you're happy with them, as I'm considering some for myself. I'm intrigued too, when you say you use them as earplugs. Do you switch them off when you're in loud environments? If they're vented, doesn't sound still penetrate quite loudly? Or is enough occlusion to lower the volume a few decibels?

 

I agree with you. I was skeptical at first, but a few years with a hearing aid has taught me it can be quite helpful for tinnitus.

 

Can anyone else listen to a tone that matches their tinnitus and then turn it off and their tinnitus be gone for a moment?

 

Many can. It's called residual inhibition.

 

Yes that's very common.

 

Thanks guys.

When you do this, and your tinnitus comes back does it react to it, like spike for a little while?

 

Mine doesn't. It slowly fades back into its baseline volume. My 500 Hz tone is the weirdest one. It changes to a higher pitch as it fades away... and then fades back with the original pitch again.

 

A word of caution: matching my minimal volumed tinnitus frequency is what accentuated and then brought on my current and more chronic condition. I would play the frequency loudly on the piano and be tinnitus free for up to an hour. Then, while utillizing ear buds, I fed a raw audio file of my tinnitus frequency in to my ears at a medium/high volume for about 30 minutes. Oh, you better believe my tinnitus in that area is nearly gone, along with my life.

 

I used it a bit in the beginning of my tinnitus as I was trying to use AudioNotch and trying to match the pitch of my tinnitus. I found it makes any fluctuating tones I have go down to a less intrusive and stable tone.

 

Hi Fabrikat,

my hearing aid is called Widex Unique 440 CIC. I bought them 2 years ago. They (Widex) are changing models (and hearing aid names) as technology further develops. Now you cannot buy the model that I have anymore, but if you want similar model you have to buy Widex Evoke 440 CIC. When I bought mine, that was best premium class, and now the best premium class CIC version is Evoke 440. They still have model named Unique, but they are not the same as mine, but lower starter class (for about 800 EUR). I spoke today with my Widex audiologist and he said, Evoke 440 model is an upgrade over mine Unique 440. Difference is that mine has 15 channels, upgrade has I think the said 25 channels, and my model is able to differentiate between music/speech/quiet environment, etc... but the upgraded model is also able to differentiate between music (for example pop / classic / rock). He mentioned some other upgraded things, but I don't remember them. He said the price of Evolve 440 is just around 100 EUR more than my model.

My current Unique 440 is my third hearing aid. I change them every 5-6 years. My first was from Siemens, other two from Widex. For me it was quite a difference between Siemens and my first Widex. With first Widex and second Widex there was no such significant difference.

I never turn off my hearing aids (except when I sleep). It is actually only possible to turn them off when you don't use them (when battery is not in place). If you ever bought hearing aids before, you know, before buying, they take exact form of your ear canal and make the hearing aids custom fit. This is the reason that they can act as hearing protection too. For example if you wear them without battery your hearing will be extremely decreased. But even when turned on, I feel protected from extreme loud sounds, because at some point when sound is too loud hearing aids don't follow this extreme loudness. Actually for the last 15 years I am often using over the ear headphones listening to music (also on loud volume), or I am listening loud music in the car, but my audiogram is basically the same for past 15 years. But without using hearing aids, I would never dare to listen loud volume sounds. I never even tried and I don't intend to, because I feel that would cause more damage to my hearing.

But please don't get me wrong. I don't suggest anyone with hearing loss to listen loud sounds, even while using hearing aids and no doctor would ever suggest that. I am just sharing my own exxperiences. We are different, so somebody else may get different results than me.

To sum up, I am very pleased with current and former generation of Widex CIC hearing aid. Without hearing aids, I am basically socially almost completely dysfunctional. With hearing aids of course it's not perfect, I still have problems with understanding clarity of speech, but that is normal, considering my severe hearing loss.

As far as tinnitus is concerned, I wanted to share my experiences with tinnitus on this forum in the past - how I am able to live almost without problem with tinnitus. But because my solution was kind of "behavioural" in nature and I saw mostly negative comments on this kind of solution I didn't.

 

Back to Shim, for a moment. I do find the discussion about hearing aids really informative, even better than some of the threads I read through, when I was considering hearing aids... I have questions actually concerning them...

1... do hearing aids further damage one's ears as many speculate and Dr. Minbo Shim asserted in one of the videos, I believe he used the word prosthesis?

Let me digress off topic for a second... thanks...

I know everybody is waiting for John Adam's audiograms... again I'm more interested in his subjective feeling about the tinnitus and hyperacusis. Did the tinnitus diminish? The audiograms should ideally have been taken shortly before the trip, and then one at the same place three months upon return... I think... but it probably doesn't make that much of a difference. And of course I'm hopeful the audiograms improve.

I was actually going to go to Korea, and then had my stupid cancer scare... and subsequent surgery, and blasted my Dr. Shim money down a different but worthy cause. Back to saving, and have stayed in touch with Dr. Shim.

John had met the man personally and attests to his character. I have to say, through my ongoing correspondences with the man, shortly after joining this forum, since he's the only practitioner who is having a go at regenerative therapy... he comes across as a really sincere, kind and sweet man. Just putting that out there, for what it's worth. He was really supportive and understanding with my surgery ordeal and said some super kind stuff I won't repeat here.

Hey, JohnAdams... hope your tinnitus has settled, and the hyperacusis has backed off. Keep us posted....when you're ready.

Back to hearing aids... if you like... do they damage one's ears? A good question, I believe...

 

Thanks @Ervin64. Your description was very informative and helpful. I suspect hearing aids would be very beneficial to me with accomodating to tinnitus. Something to explore!

I'll leave it at that for now. This isn't the correct thread for this discussion I know. I won't divert it any further.

 

John Adams did you ever meet with that ENT to discuss doing PRP injections in the States? Just curious to what the feedback was like... How's it going?

 

I called two ENTs. One ignored me, the other was an idiot. I asked the secretary to give him a message which was "I just went to Korea and got a procedure done that may restore my hearing and alleviate my tinnitus. HE IS THE ONLY PERSON DOING THIS IN THE WORLD. I'd like to ask the doctor if he knows if injecting PRP into human ears is regulated here in the US." The secretary called me back and said, "Sir, I talked to the doctor and he said we don't do that here." No duh. That wasn't even my question.

My coworker has a friend that is an ENT and he is going to eventually introduce me to him.
I'm really just kinda waiting to see what my overall results are.

Here's an update on my situation:

I've been waffling back and forth daily between my baseline tinnitus and days of almost no tinnitus in which it is just a faint hiss that doesn't bother me in any way shape or form. With the bad days, I can't hear speech in noise very well, as was always the case before the treatment. With the hiss days, I can hear very clearly, I can tell my right ear is very clear, and music sounds normal and good. Before this treatment, I never had the hiss sounds. That is entirely a new phenomenon. Last fall, when I was taking curcumin I was experiencing days of almost silence. Then I went to a coworker's church and it was so loud that I got a terrible month long spike. That was right when I stopped taking curcumin. When that subsided my overall baseline tinnitus was a little worse. So this hiss thing is an interesting change. I still have at least a month to realize the full effects of this, according to Dr. Shim, so I'm holding out hope that good things are happening. Like right now, I'm having a super low tinnitus day and there is only the hiss. If this were to become my new baseline and stay this way, I would be blown away. Only time will tell though.

One thing these changes are doing is confusing the crap out of me about exactly how and why our brains are making these sounds. It cannot be as simple as "Our auditory cortexes are missing input and creating noise where there is none." How does that explain spikes and fluctuations? Is the limbic system involved in fluctuations? Is the damaged parts of my cochlea generating noises to? Maybe someone here knows something I don't.

 

That is what an ENT told me. Errant signals from the damaged cochlea generating noise in the auditory cortex. It seems the limbic system is involved also in the fight or flight making the noises a threat and louder. Then a sound loop is created in the brain? I had a great day Monday but was reset by sleep. Hopefully your injections will solve the problem.

 

This is complex, but ultimately I think it all comes down to brain chemistry. May be due to inflammation levels.

Booze quiets my tinnitus. It may be GABA. Who knows?

I'll say this - my tinnitus went down to the just the hiss you spoke of - and it was like it was totally gone. I had an ear infection bring it back, but it's fading again slowly.

I wish you the best of luck and keep us informed.

 

Shitdaskles, your response exceeded my expectations. I am really grateful for your honesty, this is all so much new, front tear and mind boggling, and confusing. Thanks again guy... you're a great person, your family is so lucky to have you, and this crazed forum is blessed to have you on board. Wishing you success, I'll be blasting to Korea if things look efficacious.

Proud of you guy, and indebted to your courage and honesty. Wishing you peace, good fortune, and happiness. You really are a beacon of light in this madhouse. Stay strong, stay optimistic, and have an awesome everyday.

Most sincerely, Daniel

 

This sounds like a speech about Trump, paid for by Trump.

 

lol, TDS is real.

 

“John Adams is a pioneer
and a hero - no question.”

 

I don't feel like a hero. I feel like a dumbass that idiotically waltzed into a potentially incurable disease. I'm actually super surprised I was the first one of us to go try this procedure.

 

John - my friend,
I’m afraid you are a hero,
Like it or not !!

(We all waltzed into this SHIT disease buddy.)

 

On this forum you mean? I thought Dr. Shim was quite experienced in this procedure. It seems the ones that had IT stem cell injections have not posted too much about any major improvements in their tinnitus, which would seem to be bad news.

 

truth pilled.