It just feels great to find a bargain, right? Getting a great deal can be exhilarating, and more gratifying the better the deal. So letting your coupon make your shopping decisions for you, always looking for the least expensive items, is all too easy. But going after a bargain when it comes to buying hearing aids can be a big oversight.
Health repercussions can result from going for the cheapest option if you need hearing aids to treat hearing loss. Avoiding the development of health problems like depression, dementia, and the danger of a fall is the whole point of using hearing aids after all. Finding the right hearing aid to fit your hearing needs, lifestyle, and budget is the key.
Picking affordable hearing aids – some tips
Affordable is not equivalent cheap. Affordability, and functionality, are what you should be keeping your eye on. This will help you keep within your budget while allowing you to find the ideal hearing aids for your personal needs and budget. These are helpful tips.
Tip #1: Research before you buy: Affordable hearing aids exist
Hearing aids have a reputation for putting a dent in your pocketbook, a reputation, though, is not necessarily represented by reality. Most hearing aid manufacturers will partner up with financing companies to make the device more affordable and also have hearing aids in a number of prices. If you’ve started exploring the bargain bin for hearing aids because you’ve already resolved that really good effective models are out of reach, it could have serious health consequences.
Tip #2: Find out what your insurance will cover
Insurance might cover some or all of the costs associated with getting a hearing aid. Actually, some states mandate that insurance cover them for both kids and adults. It never hurts to ask. There are government programs that frequently provide hearing aids for veterans.
Tip #3: Look for hearing aids that can be calibrated to your hearing loss
In some aspects, your hearing aids are similar to prescription glasses. Depending on your sense of style, the frame comes in a few choices, but the exact prescription differs greatly from person to person. 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 results (or any helpful results at all in many cases). These amplification devices increase all frequencies instead of boosting only the frequencies you’re having trouble with. What’s the significance of this? Usually, hearing loss will only affect some frequencies while you can hear others perfectly. If you raise the volume enough to hear the frequencies that are low, you’ll make it painful in the frequencies you can hear without a device. In other words, 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 quality hearing aid is just “bells and whistles”. The problem is that if you wish to hear sounds properly (sounds such as, you know, bells and whistles), you most likely need some of that technology. Hearing aids have innovative technologies tuned specifically for those with hearing loss. Background noise can be filtered out with many of these modern designs and some can communicate with each other. Also, choosing a model that fits your lifestyle will be easier if you take into account 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 much more sophisticated than a basic, tiny speaker that boosts the volume of everything. And that brings up our last tip.
Tip #5: A hearing amplification device isn’t a hearing aid
Okay, repeat after me: a hearing amplification device is not a hearing aid. This is the most important takeaway from this article. Because the providers of amplification devices have a monetary interest in convincing the consumer that their devices work like hearing aids. But that simply isn’t true.
Let’s take a closer look. A hearing amplification device:
- Is often cheaply made.
- Takes all sounds and turns up their volume.
- Gives the user the ability to control the basic volume but that’s about all.
On the other hand, a hearing aid:
- Increases the frequencies that you have a hard time hearing and leaves the frequencies you can hear alone.
- Will help protect your hearing health.
- Can create maximum comfort by being shaped to your ear.
- Has the capability to change settings when you change locations.
- Can identify and amplify specific sound categories (such as the human voice).
- Can minimize background noise.
- Has batteries that are long lasting.
- Has highly qualified professionals that program your hearing aids to your hearing loss symptoms.
Your ability to hear is too essential to go cheap
Everybody has a budget, and that budget is going to restrict your hearing aid options no matter what price range you’re looking in.
That’s why we tend to emphasize the affordable part of this. When it comes to hearing loss, the long term benefits of hearing loss treatment and hearing aids is well documented. That’s why you need to focus on an affordable solution. Just remember that your hearing deserves better than “cheap.”