Helpful Tips to Keep Your Hearing Healthy
Dr. Meryl Miller, of ClearWorks Audiology, shares her expertise with AJT readers.
The sound of silence can be a wonderful thing, unless it’s due to being hearing impaired and you or a loved one is experiencing hearing loss. Keeping your hearing healthy requires proactive and preventive measures. Healthy hearing affects your life in a monumental way and has an important impact on your brain health as well as your overall life.
Assisting a wide following of devoted patients, Dr. Meryl Miller, Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.), is the founder of ClearWorks Audiology, which is conveniently located across from City Springs. Dr. Miller shared her inspiration to enter the field of audiology and said, “I wanted to have an expertise in a field, and I was interested in healthcare. My dad recommended I visit the career center at UGA, and I discovered audiology and fell in love with it. I love the mix of science and art and audiology keeps me challenged and learning every day. I heard on a podcast recently that humans’ superpower is communication via language, and the thing that no other living being on earth has.
“This strikes me in two ways. First, I have the privilege of being inspired and energized by the people I serve daily via language and human connection. And second, I have the gift of maintaining and reigniting that superpower with my patients. I assist in returning to them the ability to understand and enjoy verbal communication. I feel so fortunate to be able to share in that process.”
ClearWorks Audiology makes the hearing process clear and a pleasure. Located in Sandy Springs next to Breadwinner Cafe, patients can pull right up to the office. Miller received her Doctor of Audiology degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville, and undergraduate degree in communication sciences from the University of Georgia. Her clinical residency was completed at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center Audiology Clinic.
Miller proudly commented, “I was part of a private practice for 10 years and learned from great mentors, Dr. Helena Solodar and Dr. Kadyn Williams, audiologists. After a short time, next at an ENT practice, I quickly learned that I belonged in a practice which only focused on audiology. I wanted to practice audiology as I had in my first 10 years, using evidence-based procedures. I wanted to focus on audiology evaluation and treatment procedures that research has proven successfully improve communication and it’s critically important that providers use evidence-based procedures.”
Steve Selig, a long-time patient shared, “I find Dr. Meryl Miller to be totally professional, experienced, and completely up to date. I give her top ratings and just as important as her expertise, as with everything I do in life, I care how someone gets along with people. Meryl is a smart, delightful, caring, and highly competent individual and those qualities mean a great deal to me. I can’t say enough great things about her. Meryl has earned this praise and is very deserving of her success.”
Dr. Miller has clearly built her practice based on patient dedication, education, and extreme knowledge of the field. Regarding how often you should get a hearing test and starting at what age or when, she replied, “When you notice a change in how you hear and understand the people around you in any situation, or if someone tells you they notice a change in how you understand, it is time to have a hearing and communication evaluation. Outside of that, if you are around loud noise or loud music (frequent concerts, power tools, musicians — including classically trained, machinery, farm equipment, motorcycles, any sort of gunfire, etc.) and if you are over the age of 60, you should have a baseline hearing evaluation. A hearing and communication evaluation is painless and with no negative side effects.”
A referral is not required by ClearWorks for a visit, while many patients find Dr. Miller via their primary care physician, other professional recommendations, Internet search, and they are most proud of their patient referrals. She commented, “the greatest referral source is word of mouth. A current patient’s referral of their friends and family is humbling and the best compliment we can ever receive.”
What’s helpful to remember is the benefit of getting hearing aids early and determining with a professional when it’s time. She explained, “There are so many benefits to wearing appropriately fit hearing aids. Reduced risk of depression, cognitive changes, falls, and people that treat their hearing loss have greater satisfaction with their lives and maintain engagement with their friends and family. Hearing aids should be used when there is enough hearing loss that amplification can be an effective treatment and when a person is motivated enough to act and improve their hearing. Audiologists understand that people aren’t necessarily excited about wearing hearing aids, but we know that they do want to stay connected to the people and world around them. I am told by patients that they don’t want untreated hearing loss to be one of their risk factors for cognitive decline, and I support that.”
Many people delay hearing health and yet, when a spouse, or family member encourages it positively and lovingly, a little motivation can go a long way. Miller said, “I believe most people delay checking their hearing because it makes them feel older and out of touch. I treat and partner with brilliantly smart and talented people; professors, physicians, attorneys, writers, therapists, artists, executives, entrepreneurs, creatives, travelers, and people that I enjoy being around and spend time with. They all want to be the best version of themselves and the best at what they do, and that cannot happen without effective communication.”
Miller adds, “When hearing becomes challenging, we reduce communication for enjoyment, and what remains is communication for purpose. And when communication becomes even more challenging, a person starts to feel left out and can get left behind. I would say to a family member, ‘Tell me how to talk to you in a way you can understand me, and I will do my best, but at some point, you will have to do your part as well and make sure you can hear and understand me, and that may mean checking your hearing.’ Communication only exists when someone can understand what is said. If you can’t understand speech, you can’t receive what your loved one is expressing.”
At the end of the day, hearing devices impact someone’s life. She noted, “I have watched people go from quiet and not involved in a conversation, to engaged and taking an active role in their care. I’ve seen a personality completely change from seemingly unfriendly to outgoing and personable. Not all successes are that extreme. We change how people communicate on work phone calls and increase their confidence at work and are told that hearing aids allow people to participate in conversation in a restaurant with friends. Our patients reconnect with the world around them in every way. It’s inspiring to watch.”
Miller elaborated, “While the shift is slow, there is a shift to a lower age demographic using hearing aid technology. This is exciting and important because people that address hearing loss sooner have far greater success and enjoyment with their hearing aids.”
I have watched people go from quiet and not involved in a conversation, to engaged and taking an active role in their care. I’ve seen a personality completely change from seemingly unfriendly to outgoing and personable. Not all successes are that extreme. We change how people communicate on work phone calls and increase their confidence at work and are told that hearing aids allow people to participate in conversation in a restaurant with friends. Our patients reconnect with the world around them in every way. It’s inspiring to watch.
The advances she is most excited about include, Earlens, a hearing aid that delivers sound in a completely different way from all other hearing aids. “Most hearing aids have a speaker that sits in the ear canal and amplified sound exits the speaker and makes the eardrum vibrate. Earlens directly vibrates the eardrum (which you can’t feel) creating the most complete sound quality that exists from a hearing aid. The result is a natural sound quality, a frequency range closest to that of the natural human ear, and the best hearing in noisy places like restaurants. I started fitting Earlens devices in summer 2022 and continue to be very excited by the technology and what it can do for my patients.”
She concluded, “I’m going to prove just how much of an audiology ‘geek’ I am and while I love hearing aid technology and all the exciting changes in sound processing and Bluetooth connections, there is one aspect of hearing that is the most incredible of all, and that is the hearing brain. I have always talked to my patients about the auditory system, but over the past few years, since starting my practice, it has become all the clearer that it is the most important piece of the puzzle in audiology. Think of how frustrating it is when you cannot understand conversation in a restaurant. That this frustrates us tells you just how powerful your hearing brain is. At our auditory peak, we can have distracting sounds all around us and focus in on and listen to a single voice.
“That’s incredible! Now think of a time that you heard a song that transported you to a memory that completely stopped you in your tracks because the memory was so strong. And think of a time that you heard a sound, even a very soft sound, that made your heart race in fear. Our hearing brain and the way it maintains our connection to the world around us will always be the most incredible and exciting part of hearing. I am devoted to enhancing the patient’s life and we are here to help you hear better and smarter.”
For more information visit ClearWorks Audiology (www.clearworksaudiology.com)
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