An Irish start-up is aiming to safeguard the nation’s hearing, by treating and ultimately preventing avoidable hearing loss.
Founded by Rhona Togher and Eimear O’Carroll, Restored Hearing’s original product came from a project for the BT Young Scientist competition, which earned them a runners-up spot in 2009; now the start-up is part of Telefonica’s accelerator project Wayra, and is also taking part in SOS Ventures’ Haxlr8r programme, aimed at hardware start-ups.
The company offers a tinnitus therapy programme that aims to help sufferers reduce their symptoms, which often present as a persistent ringing in the ears. Streamed online, the Sound Relief treatment can be used daily, stimulating the inner ear and providing a soothing sound.
Because it’s available online, users can access it around the world, and the first month’s therapy can be accessed free of charge.
It usually costs $50 (€45.9) a month for unlimited access, with discounts for signing up for three- or six-month periods.
“It takes a lot to convince someone to use something like this,” said Togher. “A lot of people have been scammed in the past, or spent a lot of money on it before.”
Initially, the therapy was aimed at temporary sufferers, but it emerged that permanent tinnitus sufferers were gaining the most benefit from the therapy. A longer sound therapy was developed and a clinical trial at the University of Edinburgh last summer proved successful, lending further credibility to the product.
Regular use of the sound therapy has been clinically proven to reduce the severity of the condition by about 15 per cent in the first month. That was using the therapy for only five minutes a day.
“We have a lot of people out there whose lives have been changed completely by this,” Togher says.
There's a large market for successful treatments for the condition. You might think it will never affect you, but about 45,000 people in Ireland suffer from tinnitus, according to the Irish Tinnitus Association, and more than 300 million people around the world suffer from the condition.
That includes young people, who are suffering hearing damage from subjecting themselves to loud music and noisy environments without taking the proper precautions.
Now, Restored Hearing is preparing to launch a set of headphones with the Sound Relief therapy built in. That will suit those who prefer a physical product, including older customers, and allow the product to be sold in chemists and other stores rather than streamed online.
But prevention is better than cure, and the Restored Hearing team is hoping to prevent hearing loss before it begins, with new products on the way.
Tougher demonstrated a new insert that can be retrofitted to existing hearing protection, a mud-like material that improves the effectiveness of hearing protection. According to Togher, it’s up to eight times more effective, and can be used in a range of environments where hearing protection would be needed.
“It allows you to keep your headset on all day long, still have a conversation but also put on a jackhammer and still be protected. So it reacts,” says Togher.
To add it to existing hearing protection, you just have to remove the foam inserts and replace it with the Sound Bounce smart version.
Because it adapts to different environments, you can use the headset wherever you need to. The end result should be less hearing damage being diagnosed in the future. If people heed the warnings, there may be a lot fewer needing the company’s tinnitus therapy in the future. See restoredhearing.com
