Saving money just feels great, right? Getting a good deal can be invigorating, and more rewarding the better the deal. It’s a little too easy, then, to make the price your chief criteria, to always go for the least expensive option, to let your coupons make your buying decisions for you. When it comes to investing in a pair of hearing aids, chasing a bargain 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 entire point of getting hearing aids is to be able to hear clearly and to prevent health problems associated with hearing loss like mental decline, depression, and an increased chance of falls. The trick is to choose the hearing aid that best suits your lifestyle, your hearing needs, and your budget.
Tips for finding affordable hearing aids
Affordable is not equivalent cheap. Keep an eye on affordability and functionality. This will help you keep within your budget while enabling you to find the ideal hearing aids for your personal requirements and budget. These tips will help.
Tip #1: Research before you buy: Affordable hearing aids are available
Hearing aid’s reputation for being very pricey is not necessarily reflected in the reality of the situation. Most hearing aid makers will partner with financing companies to make the device more budget friendly and also have hearing aids in a number of prices. If you’ve started searching the bargain bin for hearing aids because you’ve already resolved that really good effective models are out of reach, it could have significant health consequences.
Tip #2: Find out what your insurance will cover
Insurance may cover some or all of the costs associated with getting a hearing aid. Some states, in fact, have laws mandating insurance companies to cover hearing aids for children or adults. Asking never hurts. If you’re a veteran, you may be eligible for hearing aids through government programs.
Tip #3: Look for hearing aids that can be tuned to your hearing loss
In some ways, your hearing aids are a lot like prescription glasses. The frame is rather universal (depending on your sense of fashion, of course), but the prescription is adjusted for your particular 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 is not going to give you the same results (or, in many cases, results that are even slightly useful). These amplification devices boost all frequencies instead of boosting only the frequencies you’re having trouble with. What’s the importance of this? Typically, hearing loss will only affect some frequencies while you can hear others perfectly. If you make it loud enough to hear the frequencies that are too quiet, you’ll make it painful in the frequencies you can hear without a device. You will probably end up not using this cheap amplification device because it doesn’t resolve your real problem.
Tip #4: Different hearing aids have different capabilities
There’s a tendency to look at all of the amazing technology in modern hearing aids and think that it’s all extra, just bells and whistles. But you will need some of that technology to hear sounds clearly. The sophisticated technology in hearing aids can be tuned in to the user’s level of hearing loss. Background sound can be blocked out with many of these modern designs and some can communicate with each other. In addition, considering where (and why) you’ll be using your aids will help you select a model that fits your lifestyle.
It’s essential, in order to compensate for your hearing loss in an efficient way, that you have some of this technology. A tiny speaker that cranks the volume up on everything is far from the sophistication of a modern hearing aid. Which brings up our last tip.
Tip #5: An amplification device isn’t the same thing as a hearing aid
Alright, say this with me: a hearing amplification device is not a hearing aid. This is the number one takeaway from this article. Because the providers of amplification devices have a monetary interest in persuading the consumer that their devices work like hearing aids. But that’s untruthful marketing.
Let’s break it down. An amplifier:
- Is often cheaply built.
- Gives the user the ability to control the basic volume but that’s about it.
- Turns the volume up on all sounds.
On the other hand, a hearing aid:
- Can be molded specifically to your ears for optimal comfort.
- Can be programmed with various settings for different locations.
- Can be programed to identify specific sound profiles, like the human voice, and amplify them.
- Has batteries that are long lasting.
- Can minimize background noise.
- Is tuned to amplify only the frequencies you have a hard time hearing.
- Will help you maintain the health of your hearing.
- Is set up specifically to your hearing loss symptoms by a highly skilled hearing specialist.
Your hearing deserves better than cheap
No matter what your budget is, that budget will restrict your options depending on your overall price range.
This is why an affordable solution tends to be the emphasis. When it comes to hearing loss, the long term benefits of hearing loss treatment and hearing aids is well recognized. This is why an affordable solution is where your attention should be. Don’t forget, cheap is less than your hearing deserves.”