Sensorineural hearing loss and AIT - compatible or not?

[nightcat]

My ds high frequency hearing loss has now been described by a hospital consultant as sensorineural, but when I asked if there are any possible therapies, they said no, just hearing aids.

I know some of you went down AIT route, had your dc's had a similar hearing tests results previously or was it mainly on the basis of general difficulties in coping (or not) with noises in the environment?

I suspect my ds problems are a result of autoimmune/toxic exposure (to gluten) for too many years. Would like to hear whether any of you have had a similar experience of tests and tried AIT - and with what result?

I think you should ring the sound learning centre and ask them.

DSs hearing on some frequencies was down to about 20 or 25 pre treatment, which I think is the point where it's called 'mild' hearing loss.

Post treatment he was at 0 - 5 in almost all frequencies.

So I suspect it would work - but you really need to ask the sound learning centre.

Here are DDs audiograms

You can see that per treatment her right ear was at about 15 at 8000hz and post treatment it was 0.

DSs hearing was worse per treatment, and pretty similar post treatment. I'm not sure why I put up DDs audiograms instead of DSs :)

( perfect hearing is a flat line at 0. Anything above 0 is painful. Anything below 25 is mild hearing loss......)

Ok, just looked up DSs audiograms for you.

At 6000hz he was at 25db pre treatment and 5db post treatment.
At 8000hz he was at 20 pre treatment and 10 post treatment.
At 3000hz he was at -10 pre treatment (very painful) and 0 post treatment.

So significant improvements.

The db scale is exponential. So an improvement by even 5db is huge.

Did they just rely on audiology or did they do a CT? Are they positive that it's not a conductive hearing loss?

Thank you Indigo :) will get my ds past results to compare with the latest over the weekend and compare to your notes.
No CT scan, just a hearing test, this one was more thorough though than any he had in the past, it points to nerve damage somewhere... my gut reaction is that AIT might tackle it from a different angle so may be hopeful..

Indigo, do you think Tinsley House is similar/the same to SLC?
When I have had a good look at my ds results, I will try contacting someone, either TH or SLC..

Any more feedback is welcome..

The only reason that I ask is that a conductive loss can be present even if the ears look completely normal. My DS3 has a conductive hearing loss of 55dB due to the mastoid air cell system being fluid filled.

Thanks Sally, there was no mention of fluid in the ears, middle ears were fine. Were both of your ds ears affected? One of my ds ears is slightly better than the other, but both show a similar pattern.

The fluid only showed up in the CT. My DS3 has Treacher Collins Syndrome, conductive hearing loss is very common. His ears look perfectly normal, but his ABR showed a hearing loss. Our family history meant that it probably was TCS. We just needed to see how badly affected it was internally, hence the CT.

TH is not the same as SLC. They are both 'neuro development therapies' but the therapies are very, very different. Based on different theories.

However TH doesn't offer AIT, and I really am a fan of it.

I've just booked DS2 into SLC to do AIT over Easter. Then in a few more months instead of doing the neurodevelopment therapy at SLC (retained reflex therapy) we'll go to TH.

(you need to leave a few months after AIT before doing the next treatment)

Both DS1 and DD did AIT at the SLC before doing TH. So I don't know what TH would be like without AIT - but I do know that AIT helped them both massively.

It's very expensive. The fact that I'm paying for it for the third time shows you how good I think it is.

nightcat

you might find this research paper collection provides some useful information about Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Thank you Indigo (and pm'd you with a more specific question).

Dolfrog, thank you for the links, yes, I think the cause matches what I have worked out so far, autoimmune origin :( beastly gluten :(

The thing is that NHS puts you straight onto the track for hearing aids, my ds is still borderline for that, maybe nothing yet lost for ever and I would like to at least maintain status quo. I also think that maybe some neuro-mapping therapies do exist on stimulating neighbouring parts of the brain to help. Or maybe not - but I would like to know.

Still a bit too scared to look up his previous results in case it's much worse.