What to Expect During Your Lenire Tinnitus Treatment Consultation
Congratulations on taking the first step towards treating your tinnitus! Only about 15% of tinnitus sufferers take this step towards decreasing tinnitus, improving hearing, and enhancing quality of life! With over 90% success rate in decreasing or eliminating the experience of tinnitus for our patients, you can be assured that you made the right choice to come to our clinic for relief!
Our 4-Step B.E.S.T. Process for Treating Tinnitus using Lenire
Background
Our provider will review your history to discover the impact of tinnitus, any relevant health conditions, family history, and any other information that will be helpful in formulating a treatment plan.
Exam
We will evaluate all the way from the outside of your ear to the inside of your brain to determine where the damage is in your auditory system causing the tinnitus. We do this with otoscopy, audiometry, tympanometry, otoacoustic emissions, and speech in noise testing.
Solution
With all of the information gathered from the background and exam, our provider will review your results to develop a customized tinnitus treatment plan. This may include the Lenire device.
Treatment
We don't want you to wait a second longer than necessary to start life-changing treatment! For many qualified patients, we are able to start treatment during this initial consultation!
Frequently Asked Questions About Tinnitus and Lenire
That’s a common misconception we hear often. While it’s true tinnitus cannot be cured, it can be treated and managed effectively. We have a 90% success rate at reducing or even eliminating the perception and annoyance of tinnitus.
Lenire (Len-ear), which is Latin for ‘soothe’, is the only commercially available, clinically trialed, dual mode tinnitus treatment device approved by the US FDA. It works using bimodal neuromodulation, which is the stimulation of not one but two nerves at the same time. With Lenire, for example, you have the combination of electrical stimulation via the tongue as well as auditory stimulation via the ear. Research has suggested that the combined stimulation of these two nerves drives stronger adaptive neuroplasticity, which in turn can reduce the brain’s attention and sensitivity to the tinnitus sound to a greater extent than when stimulating only a single nerve at a time.
We create a customized treatment plan for each patient based on the results of our tinnitus evaluation. This may include the Lenire device Tinnitus Retraining Therapy, environmental modifications, and/or hearing technology.
Treatment with Lenire (including the consultation, the custom-programmed device, and follow up care) is $4500.00 USD. This must be paid before you are issued a device, as it is a single-user medical device. We do have a no-interest 14 month credit-based payment plan for those who qualify.
This will depend on the results of our initial examination. If the exam reveals that your tinnitus is caused by hearing loss, your provider will recommend a treatment plan using hearing aids and/or Lenire device.
While some people experience almost immediate relief, for many others, it can take 6 weeks -12 months of following the treatment plan to achieve the desired results. During your fitting appointment with the Lenire device, your provider will help you set treatment goals and milestones. During your follow-up appointments, those treatment goals will be discussed and evaluated. If a revision to your treatment plan is necessary to achieve your goals, your provider will discuss those options with you at that time.
As with most medical treatments, there are no guarantees. And since the Lenire device can only be used by a single patient per the FDA, it is non-refundable/returnable.
Lenire has been proven as a safe and effective tinnitus treatment in clinical trials with more than 600 participants.
>TENT-A1 (Trial 1): This study showed that 86.2% of treatment compliant participants reported an improvement in their THI score after 12 weeks of treatment. 80.1% reporting improvement that sustained for 12 months after treatment.
>TENT-A2 (Trial 2): 91% of compliant patients had sustained relief from tinnitus that lasted 12-months. The average reduction in tinnitus was 20.3 THI points, equal to a full THI grade.
>TENT-A3 (Trial 3): Lenire has been proven to be more effective than sound-alone for the majority of people with moderate or worse tinnitus.
>All Trials: Across all clinical trials, 83% would recommend Lenire to treat tinnitus.
Lenire also conducted real world trials with more than 200 people. The results of Lenire’s real world trials closely matched clinical trial results.
Lenire is intended to treat patients 18 years of age and older suffering from at least moderate, subjective tinnitus.
The Lenire device is contraindicated for persons:
- Who have a pacemaker, defibrillator or any other active implantable device, unless directed by a physician.
- Who are pregnant, unless directed by a physician.
- Who suffer from epilepsy or any other condition that may result in loss of consciousness, unless directed by a physician.
- Who suffer from any condition that causes impaired sensitivity of the tongue, unless directed by a physician or dentist
- Who have lesions, sores, or inflammation of the oral cavity that could be in contact with the Tonguetip (i.e., tip of tongue and lip area), unless directed by a physician or dentist.
- Who are suffering from any intermittent or chronic neuralgia in the head and neck area, unless directed by a physician.
- Who have tinnitus confirmed to be from an objective source.
- Who have oral piercings present.
Currently we know of no insurance company covering the cost of Lenire. We do have a no-interest 14 month payment plan for those who qualify. You may be able to use your HSA or Flex-spending benefits to purchase the device.
When you are fit with the device in our office, we will schedule three more appointments at that time, one at 2 weeks, one at 6 weeks, and one at 12 weeks. All three can be done via telephone or video chat. After that, we will continue to provide support for you as needed- just give us a call and schedule another appointment.
The Lenire device is calibrated specifically for each patient based on their hearing profile. Therefore, the device needs to be prescribed through qualified healthcare professional after a detailed tinnitus consultation, including an audiogram. Assuming Lenire has been recommended for an individual, it’s also important that the treatment is demonstrated and explained to each patient by a trained provider prior to beginning the treatment itself (so as to ensure that the patient is comfortable and confident using Lenire).
Lenire has hardware limitations that restrict the sound pressure levels of the acoustic stimuli, in which the capability of fully compensating for the patient’s hearing loss is limited to hearing thresholds up to 80 dB HL at {2k,3k,4k,6k,8k} Hz and up to 40 dB HL at {250,500,1k} Hz. Fitting a patient with hearing thresholds outside of the above-mentioned range may result in a lower perceived loudness of the acoustic stimuli but does not present any additional risks to the patients
