Finding a bargain just feels great, right? It can be invigorating when you’ve received a good deal on something, and the bigger discount, the more pleased you are. It’s a little too easy, then, to make the price your chief criteria, to always choose the least expensive option, to let your coupons make your buying choices for you. But going after a bargain when it comes to buying hearing aids can be a big mistake.
Health consequences can result from going for the cheapest option if you require hearing aids to treat hearing loss. Avoiding the development of health problems like depression, dementia, and the risk of a fall is the whole point of using hearing aids in the first place. The trick is to choose the hearing aid that best suits your lifestyle, your hearing needs, and your budget.
Tips for choosing affordable hearing aids
Affordable is not the same thing as cheap. Look for affordability as well as functionality. That will help you get the most ideal hearing aid possible for your individual budget. These are helpful tips.
Tip #1: Do your homework: Affordable hearing aids are available
Hearing aids have a reputation for putting a dent in your pocketbook, a reputation, though, is not necessarily reflected by reality. Most hearing aid manufacturers will partner with financing companies to make the device more affordable and also have hearing aids in a variety 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 significant health repercussions.
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 requiring insurance companies to cover hearing aids for kids or adults. It never hurts to ask. If you’re a veteran, you may be eligible for hearing aids through government programs.
Tip #3: Find hearing aids that can be calibrated to your hearing loss
Hearing aids are, in some ways, similar to prescription glasses. Depending on your sense of fashion, the frame comes in a few choices, but the exact prescription differs considerably from person to person. Hearing aids, too, have specific settings, which we can tune for you, tailored to your precise needs.
You’re not going to get the same results by grabbing some cheap hearing device from the clearance shelf (or, in many instances, results that are even slightly useful). These amplification devices increase all frequencies rather than boosting only the frequencies you’re having trouble with. What’s the importance of this? Hearing loss is usually uneven, you can hear certain frequencies and sounds, but not others. If you boost all frequencies, the ones you have no problem hearing will be too loud. Simply put, it doesn’t actually solve the problem and you’ll end up not using the cheaper device.
Tip #4: Different hearing aids have different capabilities
It can be tempting to believe that all of the modern technology in a quality hearing aid is simply “bells and whistles”. But you will need some of that technology to hear sounds properly. Hearing aids have specialized technologies tuned specifically for those who have hearing loss. Background sound can be blocked out with many of these modern designs and some can communicate with each other. Also, choosing a model that fits your lifestyle will be simpler if you factor in where (and why) you’ll be using your hearing aids.
That technology is essential 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 us to our last tip.
Tip #5: An amplification device is not the same thing as a hearing aid
Alright, repeat after me: A hearing aid is not the same thing as a hearing amplification device. If you take nothing else away from this article, we hope it’s that. Because hearing amplification devices try really hard to make you believe they work the same way as a hearing aid for a fraction of the price. But that just isn’t true.
Let’s break it down. A hearing amplification device:
- Is often cheaply made.
- Gives the user the ability to adjust the basic volume but that’s about all.
- Takes all sounds and makes them louder.
On the other hand, a hearing aid:
- Has long-lasting batteries.
- Is tuned to amplify only the frequencies you have trouble hearing.
- Can be programmed with various settings for different places.
- Can be programed to identify distinct sound profiles, like the human voice, and amplify them.
- Can minimize background noise.
- Will help protect your hearing health.
- Has highly qualified specialists that adjust your hearing aids to your hearing loss symptoms.
- Can be molded specifically to your ears for maximum comfort.
Your hearing deserves better than cheap
Everyone has a budget, and that budget is going to restrict your hearing aid choices no matter what price range you’re looking in.
That’s why we tend to emphasize the affordable part of this. The long-term advantages of hearing aids and hearing loss treatment are well recognized. That’s why you should focus on an affordable solution. Don’t forget, cheap is less than your hearing deserves.”