Saving money just feels great, right? It can be exhilarating when you’ve found a great deal on something, and the larger discount, the more pleased you are. It’s a little too easy, then, to make the cost your primary criteria, to always go for the least expensive option, to let your coupons make your consumer decisions for you. But going after a bargain when it comes to purchasing hearing aids can be a big oversight.
If you require hearing aids to manage hearing loss, going for the “cheapest” option can have health consequences. After all, the whole point of getting hearing aids is to be able to hear clearly and to prevent health problems related to hearing loss including mental decline, depression, and an increased risk of falls. The key is to choose the hearing aid that best suits your lifestyle, your hearing requirements, and your budget.
Choosing affordable hearing aids – some tips
Cheap and affordable aren’t necessarily the same thing. Affordability, and functionality, are what you should be looking for. This will help you stay within your budget while enabling you to get the correct hearing aids for your personal requirements and budget. These tips will help.
Tip #1: Do your homework: Affordable hearing aids exist
Hearing aids have a reputation for putting a dent in your wallet, a reputation, though, is not necessarily represented by reality. The majority of manufacturers sell hearing aids in a wide range of price points and work with financing companies to make their devices more budget friendly. If you’ve started searching the bargain bin for hearing aids because you’ve already decided that really good effective models are out of reach, it could have significant health repercussions.
Tip #2: Ask what’s covered
Insurance may cover some or all of the expenses associated with getting a hearing aid. Some states, in fact, have laws requiring insurance companies to cover hearing aids for children or adults. Asking never hurts. There are government programs that frequently provide hearing aids for veterans.
Tip #3: Your hearing loss is unique – choose hearing aids that can calibrate to your hearing needs
Hearing aids are, in some aspects, similar to prescription glasses. The frame is rather universal (depending on your sense of style, of course), but the prescription is adjusted for your specific needs. Hearing aids, too, have distinct settings, which we can calibrate for you, personalized to your precise needs.
Buying a cheap hearing device from the clearance shelf won’t give you the same benefits (or, in many cases, results that are even remotely helpful). These amplification devices increase all frequencies instead of raising only the frequencies you’re having trouble with. What’s the importance of this? Hearing loss is often uneven, you can hear certain frequencies and voices, but not others. If you raise the volume enough to hear the frequencies that are low, you’ll make it uncomfortable in the frequencies you can hear without amplification. Simply put, it doesn’t actually solve the problem and you’ll wind up not using the cheaper device.
Tip #4: Different hearing aids have different functions
It can be tempting to believe that all of the modern technology in a good hearing aid is just “bells and whistles”. The problem is that in order to hear sounds clearly (sounds like, you know, bells and whistles), you most likely need some of that technology. The sophisticated technology in hearing aids can be tuned in to the user’s level of hearing loss. Many modern models have artificial intelligence that helps filter out background noise or communicate with each other to help you hear better. Also, choosing a model that fits your lifestyle will be easier if you factor in where (and why) you’ll be using your hearing aids.
It’s essential, in order to compensate for your hearing loss in a reliable way, that you have some of this technology. Hearing aids are a lot more advanced than a simple, tiny speaker that boosts the volume of everything. And that brings us to our last tip.
Tip #5: A hearing amplification device isn’t a hearing aid
Alright, repeat after me: A hearing aid is not the same thing as a hearing amplification device. This is the number one takeaway from this article. Because hearing amplification devices try really hard to make you think they do the same thing as a hearing aid for a fraction of the cost. But that’s dishonest marketing.
Let’s break it down. An amplifier:
- Turns the volume up on all sounds.
- Provides the user with little more than simple volume controls (if that).
- Is typically cheaply made.
Conversely, a hearing aid:
- Will help safeguard your hearing health.
- Can identify and boost specific sound categories (such as the human voice).
- Can achieve maximum comfort by being molded to your ear.
- Can regulate background noise.
- Has long-lasting batteries.
- Has the ability to change settings when you change locations.
- Is set up specifically to your hearing loss symptoms by a highly skilled hearing specialist.
- Boosts the frequencies that you have a difficult time hearing and leaves the frequencies you can hear alone.
Your ability to hear is too important to go cheap
Everybody has a budget, and that budget is going to restrict your hearing aid options regardless of what price range you’re looking in.
That’s why we often emphasize the affordable part of this. When it comes to hearing loss, the long term advantages of hearing loss management and hearing aids is well recognized. That’s why you need to concentrate on an affordable solution. Don’t forget, cheap is less than your hearing deserves.”