Finding a bargain just feels great, right? Getting a great deal can be exhilarating, and more gratifying the bigger the deal. It’s a little too easy, then, to make the cost your chief consideration, to always go for the least expensive option, to let your coupons make your buying decisions for you. When it comes to buying a pair of hearing aids, going after a bargain can be a big mistake.
If you need hearing aids to manage hearing loss, choosing the “cheapest” option can have health repercussions. Avoiding the development of health problems like depression, dementia, and the danger of a fall is the whole point of using hearing aids in the first place. Choosing the correct hearing aid to fit your hearing needs, lifestyle, and budget is the key.
Tips for choosing affordable hearing aids
Cheap and affordable aren’t necessarily the same thing. Keep an eye on affordability as well as functionality. This will help you keep within your budget while enabling you to find the correct hearing aids for your personal requirements and budget. These tips will help.
You can get affordable hearing aids.
Hearing aids have a reputation for putting a dent in your wallet, a reputation, however, is not necessarily represented by reality. Most hearing aid makers will partner with financing companies to make the device more affordable and also have hearing aids in a variety of prices. If you’ve already made the decision that the most reliable hearing aids are out of reach, you’re probably more likely to search the bargain bin than seek out affordable and effective options, and that can have a lasting, detrimental impact on your hearing and overall health.
Tip #2: Ask what’s covered
Some or even all of the cost of hearing aids may be covered by your insurance. Some states, in fact, have laws requiring insurance companies to cover hearing aids for kids or adults. Asking never hurts. There are government programs that often 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 fashion, the frame comes in a few options, but the exact prescription differs significantly from person to person. Hearing aids, too, have specific settings, which we can calibrate for you, tailored to your precise needs.
Purchasing 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 helpful). These amplification devices increase all frequencies rather than raising only the frequencies you’re having trouble with. Why is this so important? Hearing loss is usually irregular, you can hear some frequencies and voices, but not others. If you increase all frequencies, the ones you have no problem hearing will be too loud. In other words, it doesn’t really solve the problem and you’ll end up not using the cheaper device.
Tip #4: Different hearing aids have different functions
There’s a temptation to view all of the amazing technology in modern hearing aids and imagine that it’s all extra, simply bells and whistles. The problem is that in order to hear sounds properly (sounds like, you know, bells and whistles), you probably need some of that technology. Hearing aids have innovative technologies calibrated specifically for those with hearing loss. Background noise can be blocked out with many of these modern designs and some can communicate with each other. Also, selecting a model that fits your lifestyle will be easier if you consider where (and why) you’ll be using your hearing aids.
That technology is crucial to compensate for your hearing loss in a healthy way. A tiny speaker that turns the volume up on everything is far from the sophistication of a modern hearing aid. And that brings up our last tip.
Tip #5: An amplification device isn’t the same thing as a hearing aid
Okay, say this with me: A hearing aid is not the same thing as a hearing amplification device. This is the most important takeaway from this article. Because the makers of amplification devices have a monetary interest in persuading the consumer that their devices work like hearing aids. But that’s dishonest marketing.
Let’s break it down. A hearing amplification device:
- Turns up the volume on all sounds.
- Provides the user with little more than basic volume controls (if that).
- Is often cheaply built.
A hearing aid, however:
- Has long-lasting batteries.
- Has highly skilled professionals that adjust your hearing aids to your hearing loss symptoms.
- Can be programed to recognize distinct sound profiles, like the human voice, and amplify them.
- Can achieve maximum comfort by being shaped to your ear.
- Will help safeguard your hearing health.
- Can limit background noise.
- Can be programmed with various settings for different places.
- Is calibrated to amplify only the frequencies you have trouble hearing.
Your ability to hear is too essential to go cheap
No matter what your budget is, that budget will determine your options depending on your general price range.
This is why an affordable option tends to be the emphasis. The long-term advantages of hearing aids and hearing loss treatment are well recognized. This is why an affordable solution is where your attention should be. Don’t forget, cheap is less than your hearing deserves.”