A new study undertaken at the School of Human Communications Disorders at Dalhousie
University used a new software product called Quiescence to prove that a form of tinnitus treatment called residual inhibition is an effective means for offering relief...
"Tinnitus, a condition of ringing or buzzing in the ears, afflicts over 40 million Americans, and millions more people worldwide. A quarter of these
people are severely debilitated," said Dr. Dennis Woo (PhD), Vice President
of Spectral Visualization and Development (SVD) Inc. SVD is a software company
in Canada that has developed a revolutionary new product, called Quiescence,
for diagnosing and treating tinnitus.
"Quiescence allows audiologists to precisely model the patient"s
tinnitus," said Dr. Woo, "and reproduce a sound that exactly matches
the tinnitus pitch of the patient. When this sound is played to the patient,
the majority of tinnitus patients will experience a silencing of the tinnitus
known as residual inhibition. This sound is recorded into an audio CD or other
popular format such as MP3 players that patients can use to relieve the tinnitus
as needed."
"This is a nice means of getting patients to participate in their own treatment,"
said Dr. Tom Robertson from the Beltone Hearing Clinic in Springfield, Illinois.
"It"s non-invasive, and allows patients to lead more normal lives."
A recent study undertaken by the School of Human Communications Disorders at
Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia used Quiescence to examine the effectiveness
of frequency matched masking and residual inhibition in tinnitus therapy.
"The results confirmed our assumptions that residual inhibition is an
effective means of treating tinnitus," said Dr. Woo, "and that Quiescence
is an effective tool for targeting a patient"s specific tinnitus sound
and quickly creating an exactly matched tone that will bring relief."
"Matching the tinnitus pitch and frequency does a much better job of producing
residual inhibition than when it is not matched," said Dr. Jack Vernon,
Professor Emeritus of Otolaryngology at the Oregon Health & Science University.
Dr. Vernon is commonly acknowledged as the "father of modern tinnitus masking.".
"From the findings of this study," said Dr. Vernon, "it looks
like Quiescence does this successfully."
Dr. Ravi Sockalingham of Dalhousie University supervised the study. "The
software itself is easy to use," he said. "Everything is software-driven.
You just point and click at features that are well laid out."
"There are many other tools for tinnitus," said Dr. Woo, "But
Quiescence is unique because it actually finds out where the tinnitus is located.
Other tools basically just cover up the tinnitus no matter where it is, a sort
of one-size-fits-all approach. Quiescence allows audiologists to make a CD that
is customized for the patient"s specific tinnitus."
"Quiescence is also very affordable and convenient," said Dr. Woo.
"Audiologists will simply purchase their licenses and use Quiescence on
as many patients as they want at no additional charge. And all the patients
need is a CD player that they can use at home or even while driving. Plus, the
tinnitus parameters obtained by Quiescence can be incorporated into devices
such as hearing aids to increase the level of tinnitus relief."
Copies of the School of Human Communications Disorders study can be obtained
free of charge from SVD.
SVD Inc is a software company in New Brunswick,
Canada, specializing in advanced signal processing technologies.
Web site: SVD
More Links: Treatment
Tinnitus
