Stop the ringing – a cure for temporary tinnitus

From gig-goers and iPod owners to construction workers and soldiers, most of us have suffered from temporary tinnitus – continued perception of noise that isn’t there – after a loud event. 

Two eighteen year old female physics students and their former physics teacher from Sligo County in North West Ireland have been the first to discover a scientifically tested cure and they have launched a company to help sufferers regain buzz free hearing.

Temporary tinnitus is caused by exposure to loud environments and damage done to the sound receptor cells in the cochlea, the part of our ear which converts wave vibrations into electric signals before sending them onto our brain.  When these tiny hairs gent bent or damaged signals continue to be sent despite there being no noise.

Now, an internet-based company, Restored Hearing, is offering tailored minute-long therapy sessions for all that want to clear their ears of the ringing.  The therapy is based on sound and wave theory, using a low hum to physically stimulate the cochlear hairs back into their original upright position, and has had a 99% success rate during scientific trials.

As Eimear O’Carroll, 18 year old company founder, said, “As part of the project, we surveyed 1000 people and found that 92% of them had suffered from temporary tinnitus at some point. Many methods, from trying to keep a healthier diet to acupuncture or, even, electrical stimulation, have been suggested but none of these methods have been scientifically proven to work for sufferers – our new method has been.”

Eimear O’Carroll and Rhona Togher, both 18, teamed up with their physics teacher, Anthony Carolan, at Ursuline College in Sligo County for the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition for which they won first prize in 2008 with a study on sound localisation.  Buoyed by their success, they entered 2009’s competition with a project called ‘The Sound of Silence – An Investigation into Low Frequency Therapy for Tinnitus Sufferers’.

Rhona said, “We were a runner-up in this year’s competition but the amount of interest our project spawned convinced us that we’re onto a winner.”

With a science bursary from Sligo County Enterprise Board, a business loan and personal funds, www.restoredhearing.ie is now live on the web, ready for tinnitus sufferers to try.
A spokesperson for the Institute of Physics (IOP) said, “We came across the entrepreneurialism of these two eighteen year olds and their former teacher and we felt duty bound to spread their message.  For the iPod generation, they have used their physics and very impressive business savvy to create something that we hope will boom, no pun intended.”

Research continues on a cure for long-term tinnitus as Anthony Carolan continues teaching at Ursuline College and Eimear and Rhona embark upon physics degrees at the University of Edinburgh and University College Dublin respectively.