Hearing Aids: An investment in your quality of life
November 15, 2021

Hearing Aids: An investment in your quality of life

Based on the questions we hear in our clinic, many of our patients know hearing aids are a financial investment before they come to us. The questions patients ask us about hearing aid cost tend to be a variation of one of these below:

  • How much do hearing aids cost?
  • Why do hearing aids cost so much?
  • Will insurance cover the cost?

We’re going to answer those questions, but I want to share a personal concern first. Since my father struggled with hearing loss, I’m troubled by the thought of someone not seeking help for hearing loss due to the cost of hearing aids. These devices can significantly improve your quality of life.



If you haven’t received treatment for your hearing loss, I encourage you to make an appointment with us. One of our audiologists will evaluate your hearing. If the diagnostic reveals that you could benefit from hearing aids, we will work with you to find a solution to fit your budget.


How Much Do Hearing Aids Cost?

The price of one hearing aid can vary from just under $1,000 for very basic models up to around $6,000 for devices with many special features and more advanced technology. A study by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology found the average cost of one hearing aid is $2,300. The cost doubles for patients who need devices for both ears.


What Makes Hearing Aids Cost So Much

Hearing aid manufacturers have invested millions of dollars into research and development for today’s state-of-the-art technology. Understandably, this cost is passed on to the consumers who are benefiting from the technology..

The good news is the hard work of these manufacturers has resulted in numerous technological advances. Although analog hearing aids are still around, the vast majority of today’s hearing aids are digital. Many modern hearing aids have improvements and features that make life much easier. Here are examples of what’s available.


Smaller, Less Visible Devices

Many of our patients want discreet devices. Technological improvements have made large, clunky hearing aids a thing of the past. For patients concerned with their appearance, in-the-canal style hearing aids are nearly invisible as these tiny devices are designed to fit in your ear canal. Even the more familiar behind-the-ear styles have become smaller. A clear tube provides a discreet connection between the behind-the-ear device and an earmold or smaller earpiece.


Noise Reduction

Frequently, older hearing aids made background noise louder than users desired. Sometimes, background noise made it difficult for users to hear the sounds they wanted to hear. Noise reduction technology lowers the volume of background noise. A recent study found users reported noise reduction improved sound quality and speech reception.


Connectivity

Some hearing aids have Bluetooth technology. These devices can connect wirelessly to other electronic devices like your tablet, laptop, smartphone, or TV. This connectivity gives hearing aids the ability to perform double duty as personalized listening devices.

Connectivity is one of users’ favorite advances in hearing aid technology. These hearing aids make it easier for patients to keep in touch with loved ones. Some older hearing aids were hard to use when you were on the phone. Connectivity eliminates those challenges.


App Control

Some of our patients are self-conscious about making adjustments to their hearing aids in public. Major hearing aid manufacturers have created apps that allow you to control your hearing aids with your smartphone. Although app features vary by manufacturer, these apps let you adjust things like volume, directionality, and noise reduction. Certain apps use GPS technology to help you find a missing hearing aid.


Do Audiologists Steer Patients to Pricier Hearing Aids?

This isn’t one of the questions that most patients ask us. However, we know you may be wondering about this.

At Johnson Audiology, we’re completely independent of hearing aid manufacturers as we work all six of the most reputable manufacturers rather than tying ourselves, and our patients, to one brand. Thus, our recommendations are based on the needs of our patients.

At Johnson Audiology, we realize each person’s experience of hearing loss is unique. As audiologists, that’s why we work hard to create a custom solution to address each patient’s situation. We provide our patients with a comprehensive hearing evaluation. If the results of the diagnostic reveal that hearing aids are necessary, our recommendation for your devices is based on your test results, lifestyle, and budget.


Will Insurance Cover the Cost?

It depends. Some insurance policies cover hearing aid technology. Some may cover your hearing assessment without providing coverage for hearing aids.Some policies may provide coverage for both.

We don’t want the expense of hearing aids to keep you from addressing your hearing loss. At Johnson Audiology, we work with you to find the right hearing aids for your hearing loss, lifestyle, and budget. Since we have partnerships with all major health insurance companies and a wide network of hearing health care programs, our on-staff insurance specialists can find out if your health benefits include coverage for hearing health care and technology.

Contact us to schedule a hearing evaluation. We’ll be prepared to explain your options when you come in for your appointment.

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.
Share by: