Hi Columbine friends!
I hope your February is going well and that you are feeling and sharing lots of love this month. 💟
A few weeks ago, I finally had the pleasure of meeting our very own Lisa in person for the first time! As most of you know, Lisa lives in Phoenix and works for Columbine Hearing Care remotely. While we are grateful that modern technology allows this kind of flexibility, it sure was fun to be together in person! We attended a women’s conference for audiologists and learned lots of useful information that we are both excited to implement in our practice to provide even more value and better service to all of you!
Enjoy this month’s newsletter, and I’ll look forward to seeing you in the office soon!
🥰 Dr. Dusty
Office Updates
Columbine Hearing Care is happy to accept and bill Medicare Part B for hearing evaluations. A few important notes:
🧾 We can only accept Medicare Part B; we are not contracted with any other commercial insurance plans, including Medicare Advantage plans. (If you have the red, white & blue paper card that specifically mentions “Part B,” we can bill your insurance for hearing tests only – Medicare does not cover anything related to hearing aids.)
🧾 Medicare Part B does NOT cover “routine” hearing evaluations. Therefore, we can only bill them for a hearing evaluation if there is medical necessity, such as a change in hearing or new concern.
🧾 A referral from your primary care provider is necessary for us to bill Medicare for a hearing evaluation.
Upcoming Events
Join us for a free lunch and chat with Hillary Embry from CapTel & Courtney Abeyta from CaptionCall to find out more about captioned telephones and how to get yours!
Live demos! Food! Q & A! RSVP today to save your seat for this special event.
Please join us in welcoming the newest member of the Columbine Hearing Care team – Brody (and his trusty sidekick, Jackie 😉).
Brody is Dr. Dusty’s son and a senior in high school. He will be working every morning to help with behind-the-scenes tasks including social media, patient prep and equipment needs, and will, eventually, begin assisting with hearing aid cleanings and in-office repairs. He will also serve as our resident Bluetooth expert (these cell phone app and Bluetooth issues are so much easier for teenagers to deal with – it is like second nature for them!!). So if you call with one of these issues, you will likely get to meet Brody!
We’re so happy to have Brody joining our team, and he looks forward to meeting you all! 😊
💦 Should You Get Your Ears Professionally Cleaned? 💦
Cerumen, commonly known as earwax or wax, is found in our ear canals and actually has a few important functions! Not only does it protect our ears from dust, dirt and bugs (yes, bugs! 🥴) but it also acts as a lubricant to keep the skin moist. Believe it or not, cerumen is meant to work its way out of the ear canal on its own; however, this is not always the case.
Some people produce an excessive amount of cerumen – unfortunately this is the case for hearing aid users as the ear recognizes the hearing aid as a “foreign object” and produces excess cerumen to try and rid the ear of the object. A few other common causes of excessive cerumen buildup include having curvy or narrow ear canals and just getting older. For all of these folks, we recommend professional cerumen removal as part of their regular healthcare routine.
It is important to note that there are potential dangers involved in attempting to remove earwax on your own. It would not surprise us if the majority of you have attempted to clean your ears with q-tips or bobby pins. 🫣 Yikes! We would strongly encourage you to give up that habit as not only can q-tips ultimately push cerumen deeper into your ear canal (and even up against your eardrum which can be quite painful) but it can also cause scratches, bleeding or even the possibility of puncturing your eardrum. Ouch! 😫
For more information on the cerumen removal, click below 👇🏼 to read the blog!
Schedule Your “Ear Spa” Appointment Today!
Dr. Dusty is qualified to perform cerumen removal and highly skilled at it! We have a brand new earwax removal system – called the “Earigator” – that optimizes patient comfort as it gently flushes the earwax out of your ear.
The picture to the left shows Dr. Dusty performing an “Ear Spa” treatment with the Earigator.
Need cerumen removal? Dr. Dusty will be holding cerumen removal clinics on Friday mornings from 9 am – 12 pm beginning March 15, 2024.
Click HERE to schedule your appointment.
Patient of the Month
Watch the short video below as Danny, our February Patient of the Month, describes his experience with hearing loss and what it was like when he first got his new hearing aids.
🙏 Thank you, Danny, for sharing your experience with all of us!
The Villager’s Voice for Hearing Care
Click the links below to read Dr. Dusty’s recent articles in The Villager Newspaper.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Earwax
Hearing Aids May Extend Your Life!
Hearing Aids for Ambassador Sam Zakhem
Brenda’s Sound Bites
Hello, 2024, and welcome to a new year of better hearing!
Since there are so many items to keep track of in a new year, I thought I would take this
opportunity to gently remind you about an important topic AND address a question we get asked almost daily:
How often should I have my hearing tested?
The answer is a simple one: ANNUALLY.
With every new year, we hit the reset button on many matters in our lives, including health screenings. Whether you have a hearing loss or not, having your hearing tested annually should be part of your routine health checklist. Early detection of a hearing loss can help improve other areas of your health. “In a study that tracked 639 adults for nearly 12 years, Johns Hopkins’ expert Frank Lin, M.D., Ph. D., and his colleagues found that mild hearing loss doubled dementia risk, moderate loss tripled risk, and people with a severe hearing impairment were five times more likely to develop dementia.”*
I know sometimes it can feel easier to push off a hearing exam while you tackle other items on your list. But, I would recommend re-framing your thoughts around an annual hearing test. Instead of thinking, “I’ll just wait and do it next year, it’s not that important,” consider how much can really change if you deprioritize something that isn’t working properly. For example, we have all been advised to take our vehicles in regularly for oil changes and maintenance to prevent extensive damage to our vehicles. Would you drive around for a year with your “check oil” light on your car and expect that you may not have more severe consequences for that decision?
Think of your annual hearing test as that routine oil change, just a run-of-the-mill check for your ears and/or hearing aids to keep everything “running smoothly.” Just like a vehicle gets us from one destination to another, the auditory nerve is the information highway from the ear to the brain. Having a functional hearing assessment can help us to determine how “healthy” the ear/brain connection is and successfully intervene before it reaches a point beyond help.
If you haven’t scheduled your annual hearing test for 2024, please call our office or book online here. As a reminder, if you or any of your loved ones are struggling with hearing loss or tinnitus please know, we are here to help and just a pit-stop away! 😊
Best of hearing!
Brenda
*The Hidden Risks of Hearing Loss, Published in January 2023, Johns Hopkins Medicine