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Dr. Terri Edwards – The Relationship Between Hearing Loss and Brain Function

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Dr. Terri Edwards is the Founder of NewSound Solutions and an experienced audiologist. She has a passion for educating people on hearing loss and providing solutions to increase their quality of life. Over her career of more than 25 years, she has developed specialties in hearing loss, dizziness, and tinnitus. 

Dr. Edwards earned her doctorate from the Arizona School of Health and Sciences at A.T. Still University and her master’s from California State University, Los Angeles. She has been married for more than 30 years and is the proud mother of two grown children.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • How Dr. Terri Edwards was inspired to get into audiology 
  • Helping clients go from dependent to independent
  • What are the three main objections that patients have and how do you answer them?
  • Dr. Edwards shares some funny stories from clients with improved hearing
  • Convincing difficult patients to take care of their hearing
  • Solving the problem of hearing loss in loud restaurants

In this episode…

While the research is new, there is a strong and clear connection between hearing loss and brain function. Hearing loss is already a progressive degenerative disease — but it can also cause atrophy in the brain. 

When left untreated, it can lead to substantial memory loss and even dementia. It’s a significant problem that goes far beyond not being able to hear the TV. Slowing or reversing these effects takes some serious treatment, but few are willing to go through with it. So, how do you get patients comfortable with taking their hearing seriously?

Dr. Mark Syms sits down with Dr. Terri Edwards, the Founder of NewSound Solutions, to see how she educates her patients and gets them comfortable. The two share amazing stories of hearing recovery, how to answer the major objections that patients have, and why proper hearing is so important. They also dive into Dr. Edwards’ personal journey and how a childhood friend drove her to help others through audiology. All of this on today’s episode of the ListenUp! Podcast.

Resources mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by the Arizona Hearing Center.

The Arizona Hearing Center is a cutting-edge hearing care facility providing comprehensive, family-focused care. Approximately 36 million Americans suffer from some sort of hearing loss, more than half of whom are younger than the age of 65. That’s why the team at the Arizona Hearing Center is focused on providing the highest-quality care using innovative technologies and inclusive treatment plans. 

As the Founder of the Arizona Hearing Center, Dr. Mark Syms is passionate about helping patients effectively treat their hearing loss so that they can stay connected with their family and friends and remain independent. He knows first-hand how hearing loss can impact social connection and effective communication. By relying on three core values—empathy, education, and excellence—Dr. Syms and his team of hearing loss experts are transforming the lives of patients. 

So what are you waiting for? Stop missing out on the conversation and start improving your quality of life today!  

To learn more about the Arizona Hearing Center, visit https://www.azhear.com/ or call us at 602-307-9919. We don’t sell hearing aids—we treat your hearing loss.

Episode Transcript

Intro  0:04  

Welcome to the ListenUp! podcast where we explore hearing loss, communication, connections, and health.

Dr. Mark Syms  0:10  

Hi everybody, Dr. Mark Syms here. I’m the host of the ListenUp! podcast where I feature top leaders in healthcare. This episode is brought to you by Arizona Hearing Center, I help patients to effectively treat their hearing loss so that they connect better with their family and friends and remain independent. The reason I’m so passionate about helping patients with hearing loss is because I lost my brother Robbie twice. First to his hearing loss from radiation from his brain tumor, again when he passed away. I only care for ears, I’m the ear of EMT who’s performed over 10,000 year surgeries of the past 20 years. I’m the founder of Arizona Hearing Center and I’m the author of Listen Up. Go to listen up hearing comm to learn more about the book and go to azhear.com if you have any questions or email us if you would like more information. Today we have a great guest we have Dr. Terri Jo Edwards. She’s the founder of NewSound Solutions. She’s treated 1000s of patients with hearing loss, dizziness and tinnitus during her career. She holds a doctorate degree from an audiology from the Arizona School of Health and Sciences at AT Still University. She earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from California State Los Angeles and Long Beach respectively. She’s licensed in the big state of Texas. She’s a master of her craft. She’s an awesome audiologist. Dr. Edwards has been married for over 30 years and has two grown children. Her most favorite things is being a mom and traveling with their family. Welcome. Thanks for coming on. I really appreciate you being a guest. It’s great to see you. How are you doing today?

Dr. Terri Edwards  1:39  

Thank you so much, Dr. Syms, it’s an honor to be here. I’m doing great. I’ve had a great day seeing patients and treating hearing loss and here we are.

Dr. Mark Syms  1:50  

Yeah, that’s what makes it all great. Well, you know, one of the things I love to hear is people’s journey, like so how, you know, one day you were a student of something and you ended up being this master audiologist, you know, doctor and have audiologist is a master of their craft. So tell me how you ended up going into audiology. I love hearing these stories.

Dr. Terri Edwards  2:11  

So when I was about seven or eight years old, my parents had some friends at we lived in Colorado, and he was stationed he was a I don’t know, Captain or something in the military in the army at Fort Carson, and our parents were friends, they had a deaf daughter. And we were the same age. She had no speech could not communicate other than through sign. And we were good friends for maybe about a year. But we would play all day and run around, the only way we could communicate was to giggle and chase each other. And we would go to bed at night with flashlights in our sleeping bags. And she would teach me sign language. So the next day, we could communicate a little bit better. Well, they went off and I remember they I wasn’t we weren’t friends very long. They moved to Washington DC. And from that time on, I knew that I wanted to work with the hearing impaired population. So I cannot, the craziest thing about this story is I cannot remember that little girl’s name. No maybe coming to see this podcast. Yes, I would love to talk to her and just see where she’s at and, you know, be able to communicate with her. And I literally have no idea what her name was. She impacted my life so much. 

Dr. Mark Syms  3:42  

That’s amazing. That’s a great story. So tell me your best patient story from the recent past. You know, we all have these great times where you know somebody has a moment or reminds us why we do all this, tell me yours.

Dr. Terri Edwards  3:55  

So not too long ago, um, I have a husband and wife that are patients. And I’ve been seeing him for about four or five years. So he brought us he brought his wife in and she had declined cognitively so much like everything he did he everything I asked she he had the answer for her. She was a little bit more feeble, constantly looking at him to try to get confirmation on what should be said and she had hearing loss I fit her with, you know, I treated her and fit her with some really neat hearing instruments. And she came back about two and a half weeks later, it’s usually 10 days. But she came back about two and a half days later and I literally did not recognize her. I couldn’t believe that cognitively. Her husband was not with her. She had been out shopping she was gone she–the difference in needing help from somebody and that decline, cognitively, to now the independence, of being able to completely do everything on our own. It was crazy. I literally thought she was mild to moderate dementia. And we treated her and she came back and absolutely independent. And that was a really, really fun treatment. Because she noticed that he noticed it was life changing for them. It was amazing. Yeah, I had one recently that I’ve been seeing for about 13 years, probably. And she had lost hearing in her left ear about 13 years ago. And about January, she woke up one day and had lost hearing on her right side as well completely gone. But she’s going in for a cochlear implant this coming week. So we’re very excited about that. Excited to get her some, some help. It’s been that one’s been quite a journey as well

Dr. Mark Syms  5:59  

Get her access to sound.

Dr. Terri Edwards  6:01  

Oh, yes, yes, absolutely. Yes. So excited to get her some help. 

Dr. Mark Syms  6:05  

Yeah, that’s great. Yeah. So you know, what is your typical treatment course? So when somebody comes in, you know, you do your initial consultation and treatment. So what type of follow up? I know, I’m sure it’s very hands-on. So what if I were coming to you? What would be the typical follow up? You would do? I mean, you mentioned that happened a little off schedule. But I’m just curious in terms of how much I’m sure you touch your patients a lot. So what–

Dr. Terri Edwards  6:29  

Yeah, we do, so we’re about 85%, physician referral. And then I work with a colleague, that’s a ear, nose and throat doctor in his office, that I just leased space in his office, and we work together. So most of everybody we get, it’s a physician relationship, they come to my office, but once we treat them, we’ll treat them for hearing loss, they come back in 10 days, we’ll call them in three days, make sure they’re doing well. Any questions, any problems, we also have a texting number, that they can text us at any point if they’re having any problems or questions, because I have found that the more we work together, the more successful the patient is, with the treatment. Mm hmm. We always do REM a couple times, within the first three weeks to make sure we’re fitting correctly, we’ll do functional testing to make sure. And then we’ll see him at 10 days. Usually, if they’re having any issues, putting them in or anything, we’ll see him in 10 days. Otherwise, we’ll see him in three weeks, three weeks, and let that brain adapt to all the sound while we’re doing the testing to make sure that we’re on target as we’re fitting them. And I’m a really slow fitter. So, and the way we treat, I may start very softly, where they’re getting some help, and then we’ll adapt that up. As the brain can take more. Like there’s no reason just to slam them with sound. 

Dr. Mark Syms  8:04  

Right.

Dr. Terri Edwards  8:04  

Let the brain have time to adapt.

Dr. Mark Syms  8:06  

So you’re talking about where people have to get used to the introduction of NewSound?

Dr. Terri Edwards  8:13  

Oh, absolutely. 

Dr. Mark Syms  8:14  

Right. 

Dr. Terri Edwards  8:15  

Yeah, there’s always funny stories from that. And, but I think it’s so much stimulation to the brain, especially with the new technology that really can give so much clarity through the neural pathways that they there, the brain gets kind of tired. You know, it’s kind of overwhelming,

Dr. Mark Syms  8:35  

Well especially if you don’t have a good filtering capacity. Right. So everything they can’t pull out what they want to hear. Right. So sometimes they’ll say, the problem is I hear everything, I don’t hear what I want to hear. And what do you tell patients when they say that? 

Dr. Terri Edwards  8:50  

Um-

Dr. Mark Syms  8:51  

Or you maybe don’t see that because you don’t turn it up so quickly?

Dr. Terri Edwards  8:54  

Yeah, I don’t I don’t see that very often, actually. So what I do find is they’ll say, there’s so many new sounds, you know, I hear the refrigerator running, I hear, um, in the beginning, like the first three days, there’s a lot of new stimulation, a lot of new stimulation. And they don’t really complain about it, because I don’t turn it up, you know, all the way. And by the time I see him in 10 days, you get a lot more acclamation, I think, and they’ll always say, the first three days, I was kind of tired. I was a little overwhelmed by the sound. And I think if you set the expectations, and you educate the patient, they’re ready for all of that. But when you don’t, and you just put sound in it, it’s hard. It’s stressful for them and their system.

Dr. Mark Syms  9:50  

Yeah, well, that’s what people who are excellent at this understand, right? Yeah, I think so. So what are some of the funny sounds that people have told you, right? I love these stories, you know, people–

Dr. Terri Edwards  10:01  

Oh my goodness, I think my funniest one was, I had a lady come in. She was early 50s, early 50s. And church lady, think church lady, like, fire lady, church lady. And she came in and said, she’d worn them about three weeks. And she said, Dr. Edwards, can I ask you something? I said, sure. And she said, when you’re in a bathroom, do you hear everybody pee?

Dr. Mark Syms  10:30  

I must say I had a patient say I forgot that it made noise when you know, I pee and it goes in the toilet.

Dr. Terri Edwards  10:40  

That was a fun. And then she soon as I start laughing, you know, I didn’t handle it, probably very professionally, I cracked up. And she, she got it. She’s like, Oh, thank you, for me. Like she didn’t realize anybody can hear her, you know. So that was one of them. That was really funny.

Dr. Mark Syms  10:58  

That’s a great story. And so you know, some of the patients that you know, are resistant to getting their earring. Yeah. So like, what are some of the common things you hear from patients? In terms of their resistance?

Dr. Terri Edwards  11:10  

I think the risk that some of the resistance is, I hear fine. I hear good enough. You know, it’s up to them to talk a little bit louder. They don’t have to be mumbling.

Dr. Mark Syms  11:22  

So what do you tell patients, How do you counsel that? That’s a great thing that, you know, yeah. What do you tell them?

Dr. Terri Edwards  11:31  

So I tell them, hearing loss is very similar to vision impairment. And it’s not that you’re blind. It’s not like you don’t hear anything. It’s that you hear blurry. Just like just like your vision, you know, you don’t hear everything. And then we’ll talk about the reason you may not hear that as well is I go directly into the cochlea can be damaged. And I believe that when you go to the doctor, I really believe this, you, you want to know what’s physiologically happening in your body. So I really take the time to explain that this could be happening in your cochlea, this could be happening in your neural pathway, or it could be happening in the left temporal lobe, you know, right here in the brain, like that whole system could be compromised due to the hearing loss. What can we do to help you with that? And when you educate the patient, then you have a patient that is very willing to work with you because you’ve created a trust situation.

Dr. Mark Syms  12:42  

And so, you know, there are some that are even resistant to that. What you push it a little harder, they push back, but what’s your second? Because we all hit this, you know, motion?

Dr. Terri Edwards  12:52  

Yeah. Absolutely. Like our objections, like our three major objections are no money, no value, no problem, right? So as you hit all of those, and and for us in our office, we believe this, you can hit all of those, or any of their objections in the very first phone call when they call in. If you can begin the education process, then and try to solve their problems and solve their objections in the very first phone call, then when the patient does come in, you’re past all the objections because they’ve gotten good education. Or you’ve been saying, look, money isn’t a problem. Because we can effectively treat your hearing on a monthly payment. You don’t have to pay 1000s at one time. So all of a sudden, now we’ve solved that money problem right off the bat. And then you can really treat the patient and be the doctor and not have to hit all the objections once you’re done with the hearing test. And now it’s the surprise that they cost this much like it’s all educated upfront. That’s been really, really effective in our clinic.

Dr. Mark Syms  14:08  

So I think that’s great. I thought about doing it on the phone, like so what does that look like? I mean, you know, we all know there’s resistance, and some of them won’t even come in. So when you try to hit those three objections on the phone, what, what does that look like?

Dr. Terri Edwards  14:22  

So what happens is, let’s say somebody, somebody will go on my website, and they’ll click on the offer for the book that I’ve coauthored. Right? And then that will send us an email that says, Mr. Smith, at this email address wants your book, so they will contact them immediately, and say, Hey, can we answer any other questions and I’ve got a really good treatment care coordinator. So she’ll call them and she’ll go through a whole process of asking questions. and educating about hearing loss. Um, we do a process called form and it talks about what’s your situation, you know, F is for family. O is for occupation, R is for recreation. M is for motivation, like, what’s your motivation for even contacting us in the first place? Once you can get past all of those things and understand what their symptoms and their problems are and what they contacted you for a reason. Right? So as you do that, and you can really get to their objection, whatever that one objection is, let’s say it, I don’t think I have a problem. My wife thinks I have a problem. Well, what is the problem that your wife thinks, well, I turn the TV up too loud? And then your next question you can ask is, well, is it because you don’t hear it? Or because you don’t understand it? Well, understanding could be part of the auditory cortex. That could be past hearing that could be atrophy. Because you’ve had hearing loss a long time. That’s something you need to help. That’s something we need to immediately address. Because that’s, that’s brain atrophy. That could be brain atrophy, right? That’s something we need to talk about. And when do you want the appointment, and they’re likely to do it, when you can bring in physiologically what could possibly be wrong? And all that needs to be educated in your staff. So everything you say, from that first phone call through the entire process, the whole staff is on board with the same thing. You know, like we always tell our patient hearing loss is a progressive degenerative disease. It’s serious, it’s a serious medical problem. It’s not just Oh, I don’t hear well. You know, I don’t hear it is a progressive degenerative disease that can cause greater risk and other health risks.

Dr. Mark Syms  17:02  

Yeah, I mean, diabetes is obviously elevated sugar in your blood. But there’s a medical implications of having that right. downstream implications of that. You and I both know, that, you know, hearing loss, untreated hearing loss is associated with a higher incidence of memory problems and dementia. We know. 

Dr. Terri Edwards  17:22  

Yeah, absolutely. 

Dr. Mark Syms  17:23  

Yeah. I think that that’s a really important thing to get across to people. It’s, it’ll be interesting to see where it all goes. Yeah, you know, one of the things is, there’s been, you know, maybe a little bit of hesitancy in the medical, you know, for us to like, say, you know, treating it will make it better. But you’re, you know it does, right, because that oh, we talked about clearly. 

Dr. Terri Edwards  17:46  

Absolutely. 

Dr. Mark Syms  17:48  

Right. I mean, have you seen her husband back? Because I’d love to hear what his feedback is.

Dr. Terri Edwards  17:52  

Yes, yes, I have, actually. And I actually called him after

Dr. Mark Syms  17:58  

Is this a new wife you sent over?

Dr. Terri Edwards  18:00  

Exactly. I’m like what happened? And he’s like, Oh, my goodness. He said, I can’t believe how different she is. I’m sorry, my cat just jumped up. So anyway, yeah, she was just like, he was like, I just can’t believe it, we’re so much better at home, we can communicate better, we’re watching TV in the same room. It was just fun. Because treating hearing loss is about connection. You know, not only is it about physiologically, giving better brain health, which I believe is the foundation of what we do, right? I believe, hearing is, if you treat the brain and you give it the right information, you hear better. Right? You don’t hear better. When you’re giving the wrong information to the brain and you increase cognitive load. You don’t hear better if those hearing instruments go in the drawer. But when you really help someone, then you get to give connection to those around them and their loved ones and their friends. And they’re confident and they speak better, and they talk better. And it’s just, it’s super cool. When you really are treating somebody. It’s so fun. It’s like the best thing ever.

Dr. Mark Syms  19:21  

No, it’s amazing. And when you look at these, oftentimes I’ll say to patients, especially ones who are sorry to say, Well, you know, one difference between vision and hearing is the reason people get reading glasses is because they can’t see the word. But the reason you treat your hearing loss is because others can’t communicate with you. So even if you don’t want to get them, you get them for everybody out there. 

Dr. Terri Edwards  19:46  

I heard you say that on a podcast. I’ve listened to your podcast and your book. And the other thing I loved that you said was and I’ve actually started using that is hearing loss is a negative symptom. Right? I never thought about that until you said that. And I was like, wow. Like that’s one of the pieces that I’ve been missing.

Dr. Mark Syms  20:08  

Well, that’s why tinnitus is a driver. Right? Because people come in with tinnitus, because positive new symptom, they say, well, I’ve got this noise in my ear. You know, hearing loss is so insidious, because you don’t know what you don’t hear. 

Dr. Terri Edwards  20:22  

Yeah, absolutely. 

Dr. Mark Syms  20:24  

Yeah, it’s, it’s pretty amazing. I think, you know, when you look at other historical things, so, you know, in medicine, we treat hybrids, right. And so the reason we see high blood pressure is over the long run, the heart beating on resistance has a higher incidence of heart attack. Okay, right. And so some very wise people, my predecessors in the medical community, they kind of figured this out in the 40s in the 50s. And so we started treating people’s high blood pressure, the definitive study showing that that work came out in 1974. And so I think we will get to that conclusion much faster. But the reality is, there’s many things in medicine that we treat, based on our experience that shows that it’s the case. So the answer is, when that study comes out, you’re going to be like, Oh, of course, it’s the drone. That’s just the data, validating what my artful practice has been telling me for the past 30 years that I know that this makes a difference. So it’s kind of an interesting thing. I mean, I feel very comfortable telling you, it makes sense, right? If you’re disconnected, if your brains working harder, you know, you’re not thinking as much you’re not hearing stuff to be able to remember it correctly. I mean, there’s so many reasons why hearing loss matters, right? You’re not as connected. You don’t remember it. And you have to work harder. And how are you going to remember what you don’t hear? Right? I mean, everybody has that story, right? I’m going to go to the bank. Why are you going to the bank? Well, they actually said, I’m going to go fill the tank. Right? Filling their car, those types of things. 

Dr. Terri Edwards  21:58  

And you hear all kinds of those.

Dr. Mark Syms  22:00  

Oh, well, that’s great today, that the husband gave you such great feedback. 

Dr. Terri Edwards  22:06  

Yeah, it was really neat. It was really, it was amazing.

Dr. Mark Syms  22:11  

So yeah, I agree. And, you know, and especially if you bring those people for such a change. Now, that being said, I think the hard part is with her, but that patient, you know, unfortunately, it’s impressionable, because it was so bad, right? So you know, it’s kind of this thing where you get too far down, you know, you don’t really want to get there. Like, we’re not saying that people like won’t make sure you’re to the point where you’re in mild dementia, and you’ve socially withdrawn, then come in, I mean, you know, this is a proverbial ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So we don’t want our listeners to think like, well, he’s just saying, like, you know, I can wait, right, because that was the other one you said was no hurry. So what do you tell the people when they say, no hurry?

Dr. Terri Edwards  22:56  

Well, then I really think sometimes you have to really tell the truth. You have to really tell your patient. You know, I think they say there’s no hurry because they don’t understand there’s no education on hearing loss out there. So they’re like, so what I don’t hear, oh, well, talk louder. That’s your responsibility to talk louder. And I, I believe that’s a point that I’ll sit down with my patient and say, Look, you have absolute authority of taking care of every single part of your body. It’s your responsibility. But my responsibility is to tell you these four things, is to tell you that untreated hearing loss causes a risk of dementia. Untreated hearing loss, causes cognitive impairment, untreated hearing loss, causes cognitive load. Untreated hearing loss causes ringing in the ears, and it also causes a greater risk of falls. It is my responsibility to tell you that hearing loss isn’t about someone talking louder. It’s about you taking care of your own health. Is that something you’re willing to do? Do you want to take care of your health? You take care of your heart? Do you take care of your diabetes? Why wouldn’t you take care of your hearing?

Dr. Mark Syms  24:26  

That’s great. Yeah, no, it is interesting that, you know, there’s certain things and I can remember early in my career where guys just looked at me like well, I have patients that don’t care, they’ll have to talk louder.

Dr. Terri Edwards  24:40  

Oh, absolutely. 

Dr. Mark Syms  24:41  

Yeah and that’s a harder one to come back to us compared to Well, there’s medical reasons that you need to do this. And I think it’s pretty compelling. The evidence is already very compelling in the literature from, you know, my view of it. I think it’s really important.

Dr. Terri Edwards  24:55  

Well, and what’s so exciting is, you know, looking back at my career 30 years ago, we didn’t have any of that, you know it, we didn’t hear really about the brain hearing connections till maybe, what, maybe eight or 10 years ago? Where it was really becoming evident that there’s a big connection there. And it has changed the way that I treat patients, it’s changed the way all that new research has really changed the way I talk to my patients, and I educate my patients. And as we’ve come up with this, the treatment of the technology is phenomenal now, where I remember, there was a time in my career where I’m like, I am not putting these terrible hearing instruments on my patients. And I went medical, and I only worked in ear, you know, ENT offices, and we didn’t, we’d send it out. So I did that for several years. What was that?

Dr. Mark Syms  26:01  

There weren’t digital hearing aids at the beginning of your career, right? You know, we had, you just had all the pots in the little guide.

Dr. Terri Edwards  26:10  

A screwdriver and a high low is all I had. Digital is amazing. But the the attenuation of the background where you can just attenuate it, it’s only, you know, 8-10 db, but you can still attenuate it, and then the new hearing instruments that actually can recall the sound, and they have the ability to know that that sound is not speech. So I’m going to attenuate that automatically, you know, to listen to the speech in front of me. We my husband wears hearing instruments, and

Dr. Mark Syms  26:52  

He must have had a really good deal 

Dr. Terri Edwards  26:53  

Yes, got a really good deal. So we went to a really noisy, he got him during COVID, like last March, right? So I kept saying to him, are they helping you? Do you know what’s happening with him? And he’s like, my favorite thing is that I can hear podcasts for a while. I’m like, well, maybe that’s not what they’re really for. Anyway, we went, finally after COVID, or, or in the middle of COVID, Texas kind of opened up maybe last July or August. And we went to a noisy restaurant with friends. And every time we’d gone to this restaurant, he played on his phone the whole time. Because he couldn’t hear and I’d be like, you’re so rude. Like, what are you doing? I should’ve known. But he said, You know what? I can’t hear it. I just can’t hear it. I’m like, all right, you need to come in. So this night, we went to the same restaurant. And I kind of watched him the whole time. But I didn’t say anything. And on the way home, he said to me, that’s the first time I’ve heard everybody at the table. And I heard the waiter. And that was super, super cool. Like that was a it was, Oh, it was just the neatest thing for me.

Dr. Mark Syms  28:09  

Really awesome. Yeah. And when you talk to patients about background noise, what do you say to them? Because that’s another whole challenge, right? They’ll say I go to these loud restaurants. And you know, they’ll say what you’re saying. So yeah, absolutely. Tell them about that.

Dr. Terri Edwards  28:24  

So I try to coach them on where to sit. I mean, I think that’s a big part of it, right. And the technology that they purchase is key for that. If you purchase really good high technology, hearing instruments, you are going to be more successful in a noisy environment than you are entry level hearing instruments. They just don’t have as much in them. So we talk about that. We also talk about look, they always want to say, can’t you just get rid of the background noise? Yeah. And I’m like, Well, the problem is with that, if the baby’s crying in the table next to the baby screaming, and you look over and there’s no noise there. How does your brain adjust to that? Like, that’s weird, right? So even though you think you don’t want background noise, what you really want is to be able to hear your wife across the table from you. Right? It’s not that you don’t, it’s not that you don’t want to hear all of that you do want to hear the band, you just don’t want to you, you still want to be able to hear your wife. So I can help you hear your wife and turn the background down a little bit. But the key is the communication at the table. That’s what I want to practice with. That’s what I want to work with. That’s what I want to help you with. And as you educate on that. You can help them you know, and the expectation is, you know, are you going to are you trying to sell a widget and promise them a bunch of stuff. Are you trying to treat hearing loss? 

Dr. Mark Syms  30:02  

100%. Yeah. Well, this is great. I always love to ask this question. So, you know, if you were getting a Lifetime Achievement Award, who would you thank? So who are those people who helped you get to where you are today? I mean, it’s important, who would you thank?

Dr. Terri Edwards  30:19  

Oh, my goodness. So obviously, my, the first person I would think would be my mom, my mom’s passed away, she passed away in a car wreck about 10 years ago. But I, she was a bartender. I mean, you know, she had no real formal education, but I’ll tell you what I was going to college, like, whatever she had to do to help me go to college, she was gonna, so she never liked helped me get in or do any of that she had no idea how to do that. But I was bound to go. So I really, really appreciate that. My husband, amazing through my doctorate, you know, I did my doctorate. My kids were in sixth and seventh grade, and huge help and all of that, paying for all of that. The other people I want to thank is my kids. My kids are super academic. And they challenge me every single day to keep learning, keep reading, keep growing. Don’t stop. You’ve been in the practice 30 years. That certainly doesn’t mean anything. Change it up, learn something new. I mean, every week they call me are you reading a new book? What are you reading? What are you learning? What podcast have you listened to? And I’m thankful for that. I’m staying a student, and it’s to keep up with them.

Dr. Mark Syms  31:50  

That’s wonderful. That’s really great. Well, today, we’ve had Dr. Terri Edwards from NewSound Solutions. I really appreciate you being here. Dr. Edwards, how can people get a hold of you?

Dr. Terri Edwards  32:02  

So our website is newsoundsolutions.com go on there, we I have coauthored a book called Choose Active-Aging. And it talks about brain hearing connection, it talks about what to do and how to purchase treatment and anything that we can do to help you I love my passion is to teach about hearing loss. That is my life’s honor to do that. So I would get our book, and it’s immediately just mailed to you if you’ll go on that form on our website. It’s written with Dr. Keith Darrow, who is the only neuroscientist and audiologist in the nation. He is an awesome, amazing guy. 

Dr. Mark Syms  32:50  

That’s great. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on the podcast today. 

Dr. Terri Edwards  32:54  

Yes, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. 

Dr. Mark Syms  32:57  

Thanks. 

Dr. Terri Edwards  32:58  

Take care. 

Outro  33:02  
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