What is Dichonics Tinnitus Therapy?

The first paragraph is Dr. Dalton's description of the tinnitus therapy. It may sound like Greek to some of you-it is primarily intended for other doctors of audiology. If you want a description in simpler terms, skip the the next paragraph.

"Prior to administering the DICHONICS paradigm an audiological diagnosis must be carried out by a certified or licensed hearing specialist. These data are entered into the DICHONICS program as the entry point for further procedures that measure recruitment of loudness, abnormal tone decay and certain central auditory processing characteristics to be used in the tinnitus cancellation process. The DICHONICSTM (patent pending) program can be either delivered as traditional audiometric procedures by the hearing specialist or by the use of computer-controlled classical psychophysical procedures interfaced directly with the patient. In either situation a set of stimulus parameters are generated that are unique to each patient yielding a specific prescription for that patient. Once the prescription is determined the hearing professional has a four option matrix that can be used in the dispensing process." ~Dr. Dalton

Dichonics offers a tinnitus therapy consisting of a complex sound wave that changes the plasticity of the auditory system, thereby reducing or canceling the tinnitus. I realize that most of you have not gone through seven years of schooling for communications and speech therapy like Dr. Dalton has, so let me put it this way. The sound we have playing over our headsets is specifically modified to suit your tinnitus. While that sound is playing, it is training the auditory system to deal with the tinnitus and make it quiet down. The therapy is conducted at a neurological level-it's like sending a knight (the sound therapy) into the castle (your brain) to fight the evil dragon (your tinnitus). Everyone's "dragon" is different, so everyone needs a custom "knight".


Here are the steps to our procedure:

Audiological Workup

First we need an audiogram. This gives us the information we need on what frequencies you can hear at what volume. The doctor may want a tympanogram to make sure the inner ear is not damaged.

Initial Evaluation

This is where the knight comes in. We will have you put on a pair of headsets and listen to a sound. We'll ask you some questions so we can modify the sound to your individual prescription. It may take a couple of tries to reduce or cancel the tinnitus. Some people will not reduce during the first session. It may take weeks, or even months, for a patient to notice a difference in their tinnitus.

Additional Therapy

After the initial evaluation, there will be two consecutive days of therapy sessions. These sessions are about an hour long each and are included in the cost of the initial evaluation.

After the Therapy

Once you've completed the initial therapy, you have two options. You can either come into the office for additional therapy sessions, or you can buy the product to take home with you. The dispensing options are described below.

Dispensing Options



OPTION ONE

Download Rx to a simple neck-worn module that can be worn at the discretion of the patient as needed or wanted. The patient selects earphones or ear buds similar to wearing a conventional music player device. This approach is an as-is non-monitored method that serves the needs of those who want occasional relief at particular times. Dispensed as no warranty, no return, as-is (except for the electronic components) partial solution.

Advantages: Inexpensive, simple, limited return visits.

Disadvantage: Limited applicability, residual effects not monitored, lack of follow-up.

Tinnitus Patient Selecting the Critical Components of the Cancelation Procedure

OPTION TWO

The cancellation prescription is delivered through a set of specialty earphones designed for the tinnitus cancellation application. In addition to the tinnitus treatment, the earphones contain hearing enhancement technology that improves the patients ability to hear and discriminate speech and other sounds. Binaural ear-level high-quality microphones receive sounds from the environment and pre-process the signals so that back-ground noises are removed to improve auditory compression. Therefore, hearing is improved while the cancellation software is actively altering the neural patterns responsible for tinnitus. .

Advantages: Better control of the cancellation parameters, provides ancillary amplification, and binaurally equalizes hearing loss by neurologically modifying the central auditory processing system.

Copyright 2010 Dichonics Inc.. All rights reserved.

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Virgil Henson Activities Center, WTAMU
Canyon, TX 79016
ph: 806-651-5101
shiloh_410@yahoo.com

The doctor is trying to put the program on the interenet, so you can use it, without having to stay in Texas for any long extended periods of time.

Are you thinking of trying this? Thanks for posting.
Sue

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS

As soon as he makes it available on the internet,

He is working on it.

Do you have any idea how much this cost?

More "sound based" bullshit.. These things all have a miserable track record, and most T sufferers spend a damn fortune in a desperate attempt to get some real help, and always fail miserably.. These people KNOW it too, and cash in on OUR pain, desperation,and misery...
If this works, i will apologize publicly and privately, and become the dispensers best advocate,,, In the meantime, I say its just more bullshit hype, trying hard to steal BIG money from the wretched and miserable victims of T, that are desperate for ANY relief... We'll see, but to me it looks like more Neuromonics, Soundcure, Mutebutton, blah blah, blah....... bob

Not sure yet. But the interent version should be reasonable.

Is this sort of like playing your tinnitus frequency back externally to cancel the internal noise?

I really,really hopes this works but beebee's remark "sound based bullshit" was very funny!

Do you know of anyone who has used this? Is there any feedback
at all?

My son was telling me in physics class they were able to make one sound cancel another, how come we can't do that for tinnitus?

Because TINNIUTS is NOT a sound wave, and there is NOTHING to CANCEL.
In my opinion, any treatment that claims to CANCEL tinnitus is a scam, unless its using MASKING - which is not cancelling.
Tinnitus cannot be cancelled out, it can only be suppressed (pharmacologically, Klonopin, etc.) or disrupted (electrically- rTMS, etc.).

I know nothing of this treatment but do want to say that the doctor has good credentials and he belongs to the same ASHA (American Speech Hearing Association) that I do as a retired speech pathologist. ASHA has a high code of ethics and if he were trying to scam anyone he would have his accreditation taken away and he would be banned. I think you can assume he is genuine.

Danny,

His invention is designed for help with habituation. It's not a cure for tinnitus. It just helps reduce the sound. His website does show some type of imaging where there's less neuronal activity with his headphones on. That reduction is associated with reduced noise. Whether that is cancelation or not, it is relief. I do wish he'd release his program. He is supposed to get or be getting funding for it. But I haven't hear or read anything for months.