I'm a young sufferer having a truly aweful time at the moment. Suffering now for a year and each day is a real grind. I often feel suicidal but have not yet built up the courage to do it because I have wonderful parents helping me through this and I don't want to hurt them. Anyway my question is is it wise to have hope for a day thatvi will hear silence again and have my hearing restored to the level it was before the trauma that caused my hearing loss?

Hello,
Im not sure how old you are, but Im 24 and have had t for around a yr as well. I cant garentee youll hear silence, I can say that we are closer than ever to a cure, or positve treatment. ANM medical is comming out with a very positive treatment at the end of this month. There are also great advancements in stem cells and other research going on. There is by far more research going on now than ever before. Nevermind all the negitivitey on this board and there is alot of it. But we all go through these spells. Last week I was having the worst of worst times. It lasted about 2-3 days, and I got over it and am thankful.
Just hang in there. Suicide is definatly not the answer to this problem.

I am in the same boat as you apart from the fact my hearing loss was caused from medication (from having perfect hearing across the freq's- (audiogramme 2yrs back) now having a damaged left ear.Im 30 years young way to early for this in life.I dont think anyone at any age should have to suffer from this.I have been studying hearing mechanics and restoration from all resources available since learning my fate.
From what I have found it is not if they can restore hearing to people but when.
Researchers have already proven they can restore hearing across many frequencies to near normal or baseline in some animal models but why are they not clinically testing human now ?
Adenovectors are a virus which have been used to transfer genitic material (ATOH) to ear support cells in order for them to differentiate into hair cells which are needed for hearing (forunitely nerve cells fibres acitively seek the new cells in order to transfer electrical signals ).
Gene therapy has potential risks because you are dealing with a live virus that may not be able to infect the body (no pathogenity) but could cause a unwanted immune response.
Possible tumor potential in cells ?
How much medication to inject into cochlear and how without damaging the delicate organ.
Anyway you get the idea ,when it comes to humans they want to have the safest and most efficient stradegy with the least side effects.
I think the best hope to look forward to in the near future in Neramexane for tinnitus which has shown in human clinical trails to be of benifit.
Hope I havnt overdone it with tech side.cheers.

Thanks Mr Microbiology. Another very informative post. Much appreciated.