As an audiologist, Dr. Rebecca Grome of Ears 4 U Hearing Services has seen the damage that can be done by not taking care of ears properly. While many of us go in for yearly physicals and eye exams, we often forget about checking in on our audio health as well.
“Invest in your hearing by getting annual hearing testing,” she says. “I'm very well aware that people don't want to come see me because they don't want to admit that something's wrong, and hearing loss has always been associated with the aging process.”
Now, it’s more important than ever to protect our hearing from damage, and if that damage is already done, to stop it from getting worse and find solutions in order to hear properly. “There was a huge study that came out in the Lancet [medical journal] last year that talked about the correlation between untreated hearing loss and cognitive decline,” says Dr. Grome.
Many younger people, she explains, have damaged hearing from wearing AirPods, attending concerts and frequenting loud places such as restaurants and bars. “There are some changes you can make to help protect your ears, and number one is wearing hearing protection in high-noise situations.”
Ears 4 U, the practice she bought in 2018 in Berry Hill, does custom hearing protection that is molded to your ears for your specific needs. While there are also plenty of over-the-counter hearing protection options, she says the simple and inexpensive foam earplugs work great. The problem with these is they are sometimes hard to get in the ear canal. She also recommends Loop earplugs, which are very popular because they're cute and come in fun colors.
In addition to hearing loss, tinnitus (or ringing in the ears) can negatively affect people’s quality of life. Dr. Grome will address and educate her patients on what can be done for this condition. “I specialize in tinnitus and tinnitus retraining and we carry a few specialty products for this issue. Historically, we have had to rely on sound therapy, but the big news is that I was recently approved to offer the Lenire® Tinnitus Device, which features a tongue tip and a set of headphones for at home habituation. We're seeing fantastic results with it.”
There are only about 20 approved Lenire practitioners in the country and she’s very thankful to be one of them so she can have this treatment available for her patients.
At the new Brentwood location, which she opened in September of 2024, she has a lot of tinnitus patients, many of whom are veterans, while the original location in Nashville caters to a large musician population. “A lot of musicians are scared to death that they're going to lose their hearing and then they won't be able to do what they love to do. So, it's really wonderful working with them, and it’s reassuring to them that they have a team of people on their side.
“We can discuss their typical sound environment or take measurements of their noise levels and come up with a plan of how long they can be in that environment safely before hearing protection is required.”
Just because there’s damage doesn’t always mean there’s a need for hearing aids. Every patient and situation is different, and she and her team will assess what’s needed.
Today, Dr. Grome believes people are more educated and more conscious of preventing hearing issues, especially parents of young kids. Dr. Grome, who lives in Brentwood with her husband Nick, is herself a mother of two children. Their daughter Naoma is in kindergarten, and their son Perry is in first grade. “They're very happy and very funny, and it’s just so nice to work close to home,” she says.”
Her family was a big impetus in buying the practice. “I was a hearing aid manufacturer rep for seven years, and I covered a very, very large territory, mainly in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. Once I had children, I realized that I didn’t want to miss out on their childhood and needed to find something that was a little less travel-heavy. I had learned so much when I was a rep about how people run their businesses, and I wanted the freedom of running my own office.”
Now, she has two! To make an appointment with Dr. Grome to speak about your ear health, visit the Ears 4 U website.
“Invest in your hearing by getting annual hearing testing.”
“I specialize in tinnitus and tinnitus retraining...”