Do You Hear that Ringing?
November 15, 2021

Do You Hear that Ringing?

Is the ringing, buzzing, chirping or humming in your ears, also known as TINNITUS (pronounced TINN-a-tus or ti-NIGHT-us), driving you to distraction? Be assured, you are not alone. An estimated 50 million Americans experience some form of tinnitus, making it one of the most common health conditions.



Megan Johnson, Au.D. and owner of Johnson Audiology, a Chattanooga-based private audiology practice, said, “Tinnitus is experienced by people in different ways. For some, tinnitus manifests itself as a ringing sound, while others experience tinnitus as a hissing, buzzing, roaring, clicking or humming. I’ve even had patients report that their tinnitus sounds like music playing directly in their ears.”

Many with tinnitus are surprised to learn that the sound they are hearing is not actually originating from the outside environment and, therefore, is not audible to anyone around them.* In a manner of speaking, tinnitus is “all in your head.” Please understand, however, that is not meant to imply that a person’s tinnitus is not “real.” It is, indeed, a very real sensation being experienced by the person with tinnitus. But why does the brain create this sound?


In 90% of cases, tinnitus is accompanied by some degree of hearing loss, even if the hearing loss is so mild as to not create significant communication difficulties. Hearing loss can happen for various reasons, but most common is exposure to various types and degrees of loud noise, even if the sounds are not constant or frequent. Think of the last time you mowed the grass or used the vacuum cleaner without wearing earplugs. Have you attended a sporting event surrounded by screaming fans? Have you been to a rock concert? Have you fired a gun? Do you work in a factory or other loud environment? Over the course of a lifetime, extended or repeated exposure to sounds at or above 85 decibels (approximately the level of a vacuum cleaner) can cause permanent damage to a person’s hearing. The damage can be in the high-frequency range of hearing, the low frequencies and/or anywhere in between. The pitch of a person’s tinnitus usually tends to be in the same frequency where there is the most hearing loss. If, for instance, a person has a high-frequency hearing loss, it is likely the person experiences their tinnitus as a sharp, high-pitched sound. That is because as the brain “searches” for sounds in that frequency and comes up empty-handed because of the hearing loss, the brain fills in the void with the ringing, buzzing, or clicking sounds. Noteworthy is that a single exposure to a sudden extremely loud noise also can cause tinnitus.


While hearing loss is thought to be the reason that most experience tinnitus, other catalysts also exist. These include sinus congestion; barometric trauma; obstructions in the ear canal; temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJ; head or neck trauma; traumatic brain injury; some prescription and over-the-counter medications; metabolic disorders like hyperthyroidism; autoimmune disorders, such as fibromyalgia; high blood pressure; and psychiatric disorders like anxiety and depression. Tinnitus is more common in men, Caucasians, seniors, and those with significant noise exposure, such as veterans, factory workers, musicians, and hunters.


While millions have tinnitus, no two patients experience tinnitus in exactly the same way. For instance, one person’s tinnitus might come and go; for another, it might be constant. Some patients hear the ringing in one ear; some in both. The severity of a person’s tinnitus also can vary from mild to extreme. Some have a basic awareness of the ringing, but it does not affect daily life and function. However, for others, it can be debilitating. It is not uncommon for someone with severe tinnitus to experience distress, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, frustration, and poor concentration. For a longtime hearing aid wearer, Kimberly Haney, her tinnitus was “extremely bothersome.” She went on to describe her tinnitus: “Imagine a hot summer evening at the lake with a raucous chorus of cicadas and katydids and tree frogs calling their little hearts out. Now imagine all that noise contained between your two ears and playing on an endless loop 24/7. That describes my tinnitus. It was difficult to cope.”


So what can a person suffering from tinnitus do? Granted, since tinnitus is not a disease, but rather a symptom of an underlying condition, there is not a “cure” per se. However, these days, many options are available for managing tinnitus and thus quietening the ringing so that a sufferer can lead a more comfortable, productive life.


The first step in addressing tinnitus management is to make an appointment with a trained doctor of audiology, who will have the diagnostic tools, clinical assessments, and skills to appropriately evaluate tinnitus. As tinnitus is often a result of hearing loss, most audiologists will begin with a comprehensive audiological test to determine if a person has hearing loss and what the specific gaps in hearing are. Most important, the audiologist should subjectively evaluate the effects the tinnitus has on the person’s mental, cognitive, social, and physical well-being. All these factors will be taken into consideration when the audiologist makes treatment recommendations. Johnson said, “When Kimberly came to me for her first hearing diagnostic years ago, it was more because she thought she had hearing loss rather than with the goal of addressing her tinnitus. The tinnitus seemed an afterthought because she had been told by her doctor that nothing could be done. I assured her something could be done, and we developed a management plan that addressed her hearing loss and by extension her tinnitus.”


If the audiologist determines that hearing loss is the underlying cause of the tinnitus, hearing aids may be recommended. As the hearing aids amplify sound in the ranges where the person has hearing loss, the brain receives the sounds and no longer needs to fill in the missing frequencies with the ringing or buzzing. As a result, a person’s tinnitus often fades to a level that is no longer noticeable and/or bothersome. Bear in mind, that a person even with mild hearing loss can experience tinnitus so just because a person does not perceive they have hearing loss, the diagnostic evaluation will reveal the real story, and the audiologist may recommend hearing aids as a targeted method for reducing tinnitus. Haney said, “Hearing aids changed my life. Once I was fit with aids, and I was hearing so much better, the tinnitus quietened down to where it was a background sound in my life rather than front and center.”

Every tinnitus patient is unique in their experiences of this condition and its effect on daily living. Therefore, the recommended treatment options may vary based on how the person’s tinnitus presents itself, as well as the person’s listening needs, triggers, and lifestyle. Some management strategies may include multiple treatment options to adequately address a person’s needs. In addition to hearing aids, treatment options may include tinnitus maskers, sound generators, sound therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and general wellness recommendations in regards to diet, physical and social activity, and stress management.


When you make the decision to visit a hearing care provider about your tinnitus, be sure that he or she is performing a tinnitus-specific evaluation and is using subjective questionnaires to evaluate your reaction to your tinnitus. For instance, a hearing instrument specialist (HIS) at a hearing aid dispensary and even a primary care physician may not be equipped to offer the level of assessment that a doctor of audiology can provide. Oftentimes, patients will mention ringing in their ears to their primary care physician, who will refer them on to Johnson Audiology. On the other hand, audiologists have specialized training in tinnitus management. Johnson said, “Tinnitus is of special interest to me because I have seen how it can negatively affect people’s lives. I’ve also seen how much it can improve a person’s life when their tinnitus is successfully managed. That’s why we put an emphasis on tinnitus management at Johnson Audiology.” According to the American Tinnitus Association (ATA), tinnitus typically begins as an audiological, or hearing, condition. For this reason, it is best to consult providers with clinical specialties in hearing health. At Johnson Audiology, the doctors of audiology are trained to perform full-scale tinnitus assessments to create the most appropriate treatment plan tailored to a person’s individual needs.


Have you had enough of just “living with” your tinnitus? Were you told in the past, or even recently, by a medical professional that nothing can be done? Call Johnson Audiology to schedule a tinnitus evaluation today and be assessed by one of our audiologists who have specialized training in treating patients with tinnitus.


*In rare cases, a person can experience objective tinnitus that is audible to others.

Untreated hearing loss is changing your brain

By Jan Hollingsworth • May 16, 2024
Research reveals that hearing loss actually rewires your neural pathways Your Amazing Brain Your brain is an amazing organ! This wrinkly, reddish-pink mass weighs about the same as your two-slice toaster, tipping the scales at about three pounds. Acting as a master control center, your brain enables every thought, breath, eye blink, heartbeat, movement—everything—that happens in your body. Rivaling the world’s most powerful supercomputer, your brain can download, process, and react in milliseconds to the tidal wave of information coming from your eyes, skin, nose, tongue, and ears. Neuroplasticity and Your Sense of Hearing Researchers have discovered that the human nervous system—made up of the brain, spinal cord, and a complex network of nerves—has incredible capacity to modify itself, both in function and physical structure. This is called neural plasticity . Dr. Megan Johnson, audiologist and owner of Johnson Audiology explains, “Neural plasticity is going gangbusters in a child’s brain as the child develops and matures into adulthood. Based on years of brain research, we also know that the adult brain is far from being fixed. It, too, changes and adapts when you learn new information or skills or as a response to stress, hormonal fluctuations, drug interactions, injury, and much more.” Dr. Johnson also relates that “your brain displays neuroplasticity when you experience hearing loss.” By measuring brain waves using an electroencephalograph, or EEG, scientists have studied how the brain of a person with hearing loss functions compared to a person with normal hearing. The results are both fascinating and sobering as studies reveal that, in those with hearing loss, the portion of the brain devoted to hearing becomes reorganized. This can be true even with early-stage, mild hearing loss, and the process happens quickly, often in months rather than years. The Hearing Center of Your Brain and Beyond What is actually happening when this takes place? Your brain has a right and a left hemisphere and six major lobes. Think of your frontal lobe as your brain’s boss, where executive functions like decision making, emotion and impulse control, and planning occur. Your temporal lobe, which contains the auditory cortex, is doing the heavy lifting when it comes to interpreting sounds and assigning those sounds meaning. The temporal lobe processes speech and language, and it is where initial learning of new information takes place, which is the first step for logging that information into memory. Dr. Johnson goes on to relate, “When the delicate infrastructure of your ear has become damaged through noise exposure, infection, etc. leading to hearing loss, your auditory cortex cries out to your frontal lobe, saying ‘Help! Help! I’m not receiving any sound to process, so I feel lost.’ The frontal lobe ‘boss’ jumps to attention, and your occipital lobe, responsible for processing vision and touch, takes over the areas in which hearing is normally processed. In other words, your other senses seek to compensate for the deficit due to the loss of your sense of hearing.” Amazing, right? So, where’s the rub? Picture a car assembly line; each worker has an assigned task. One day, the worker who installs the windshields is absent, and the worker who attaches the rearview mirrors is assigned double duty, and a duty that was not part of job training. It is easy to see how the worker left juggling both jobs is compromised, and a car might slip through minus a rear view mirror. Similarly, the areas of your brain that are being taxed to make up for a lack of hearing are overloaded and less able to do their assigned responsibilities. “This explains why so many of my patients with hearing loss relate feeling exhausted and frustrated after a big family gathering—where multiple talkers and sounds must be interpreted—rather than happy and invigorated by the experience. We call this listening fatigue ,” states Dr. Johnson. Additionally, when left untreated long enough, researchers point to the brain’s reorganization due to hearing loss as a significant correlation with dementia. Hearing Technology and Your Brain “But here's the great news!” Dr. Johnson says. When a person is fit with hearing aids or a cochlear implant and sound is restored, the brain has the ability to adjust back—partially or completely—to proper function. How swiftly that happens often depends on how long the hearing loss went untreated and is why she encourages patients to treat hearing loss sooner rather than later. “Here is what I tell patients who are downplaying the importance of hearing: If you won’t treat your hearing loss for the sake of your ears, do it for your brain!”

Move from the Gunbarrel Road office to a new and larger office will allow Johnson Audiology to help even more people in the Chattanooga region

By Jan Hollingsworth • January 9, 2024
Johnson Audiology is pleased to announce that the practice will be moving one of its Chattanooga area offices from its current location on Gunbarrel Road to a new location at 6830 Lee Highway. The move will take place January 15. “We are extremely excited to be re-locating to a much larger space later this month,” Dr. Megan Johnson, founder and owner of the award-winning practice, says. “About a year ago, we realized that we needed more room to meet the needs of our growing patient base so we could help even more people with hearing loss. We sought a place that would allow us to stay in the East Brainerd/Hamilton Place area so that the office would still be conveniently located for patients. Our Hixson office will remain at 5617 Highway 153, Suite 203 and is also being upgraded with a second sound booth and beautiful new decor. These two strategically located offices mean that we can continue to serve patients who live east and west of the Tennessee River.” Dr. Johnson says that when she identified the building on Lee Highway, she knew it was an ideal site for this next growth leap. “Our company culture is anchored on the premise of always offering an exceptional patient experience,” she says. “Thanks to our wonderful family of Johnson Audiology patients, we have outgrown our current office and have found the perfect location for offering the best care to even more of our Chattanooga neighbors.” The new location offers many positive features that will benefit patients: The office is conveniently located off Lee Highway in the area between Shallowford Road and Hickory Valley Road, directly behind Dr. Keith B. Dressler’s orthodontic practice. It is a stand-alone office that is not shared with any other businesses. The building is more than 4,000 square feet, which is double the space of the current office on Gunbarrel Road. The added square footage will accommodate a spacious patient welcome and reception area, three sound booths for hearing testing, and a private area for patient check-out. The building has exam rooms for four full time audiologists and an audiology assistant, a large front desk area, and a sizeable lab for hearing aid maintenance and repair. The office has ample space for the practice’s growing Cochlear Implant (CI) Program with a dedicated sound booth and exam area just for CI patients. The building design allows for easy circular patient flow throughout the office. The building has a dedicated, 20-space parking lot just for Johnson Audiology patients and additional parking for Johnson Audiology staff. Dr. Johnson mentions that the building was a non-medical office previously, so updates were needed to bring it up to par for a bustling hearing health care clinic. It currently is being remodeled, and the parking lot resurfaced. “We have plans to transition to the new building by January 15 with some final touches to the office’s aesthetics continuing through the spring,” she says.  Dr. Johnson wishes to assure folks that measures are in place to alleviate disruption to the service patients receive during this time and thanks patients in advance for their continued support and understanding during the transition. “The new office is going to be incredible!” she says. Initial correspondence has been delivered to patients about the move. Dr. Johnson says, “Patients who have appointments scheduled in early January or those who need walk-in service for hearing aid maintenance and supplies from now until January 15 should continue visiting the Gunbarrel Road location.” Dr. Johnson says, “In February, we will invite our friends and neighbors in the Chattanooga community to an open house celebration, where we will do an official reveal of the new space!” Johnson Audiology has been faithfully serving the citizens of Chattanooga since the practice opened its doors on October 1, 2009. “As we prepare to celebrate our 15th anniversary this year, the new office location on Lee Highway and the upgrades to the Hixson office are evidence of our commitment to patients.” Dr. Johnson goes on to say, “Chattanoogans have named Johnson Audiology Best of the Best in the category of Favorite Audiologist and Hearing Aid Clinic for 11 years straight. And they consistently name Johnson Audiology in the top three in the category of Best Customer Service among all Chattanooga businesses. We seek to live up to those accolades daily!” Dr. Johnson concludes, “One of our patients, Mr. Van Tenpenny, recently had this to say about us: ‘My visit to Johnson Audiology has been life changing! After decades of hearing loss, I am able to hear normal conversations in any environment.’ It is our highest ideal to be here for Mr. Tenpenny and the thousands of other patients like him who prioritize their hearing for the best quality of life.” Do you want to get on the road to healthy hearing? Johnson Audiology is currently accepting new patients at all locations. Call today to schedule an appointment or book online at www.johnsonaudiology.com/schedule.
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