Finding a bargain just feels great, right? It can be exhilarating when you’ve received a good deal on something, and the larger discount, the more satisfied you are. 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. But going after a bargain when it comes to buying hearing aids can be a big oversight.
Health consequences can result from choosing the cheapest option if you require hearing aids to manage hearing loss. After all, the whole point of getting hearing aids is to be able to hear well and to prevent health issues associated with hearing loss such as mental decline, depression, and an increased chance of falls. The key is to find the hearing aid that best suits your lifestyle, your hearing requirements, and your budget.
Tips for picking affordable hearing aids
Cheap and affordable aren’t necessarily the same thing. Keep an eye on affordability and functionality. This will help you keep within your budget while allowing you to find the correct hearing aids for your personal requirements and budget. These tips will help.
You can find affordable hearing aids.
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 wide range of prices. If you’ve already decided that the most reliable hearing aids are out of reach, you’re probably more likely to search the bargain bin than look for affordable and reliable options, and that can have a long-term, negative affect on your hearing and overall health.
Tip #2: Ask what’s covered
Some or even all of the cost of hearing aids might be covered by your insurance. Some states, in fact, have laws mandating insurance companies to cover hearing aids for kids or adults. Asking never hurts. If you’re a veteran, you might be eligible for hearing aids through government programs.
Tip #3: Your hearing loss is unique – find hearing aids that can calibrate to your hearing needs
In some ways, 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 tune for you, tailored to your precise needs.
You won’t get the same results by grabbing some cheap hearing device from the clearance shelf (or, in many cases, results that are even remotely helpful). These amplification devices boost all frequencies instead of raising only the frequencies you’re having a hard time hearing. Why is this so significant? Usually, hearing loss will only affect some frequencies while you can hear others perfectly. If you raise all frequencies, the ones you have no problem hearing will be too loud. You will most likely end up not using this cheap amplification device because it doesn’t resolve your real problem.
Tip #4: Not all hearing aids do the same things
It can be tempting to think that all of the modern technology in a good hearing aid is just “bells and whistles”. The problem with this idea is that if you wish to hear sounds clearly (sounds such as, you know, bells and whistles), you likely need some of that technology. The specialized technology in hearing aids can be dialed in to the user’s level of hearing loss. Background noise can be blocked out with many of these modern models and some can communicate with each other. Also, selecting 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 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 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. This is the most important takeaway from this article. Because hearing amplification devices try very hard to make you believe they do the same thing as a hearing aid for a fraction of the cost. But that’s untruthful marketing.
Let’s break it down. A hearing amplification device:
- Is typically made cheaply.
- Takes all sounds and turns up their volume.
- Gives the user the ability to control the basic volume but that’s about all.
A hearing aid, conversely:
- Will help you maintain the health of your hearing.
- Can create maximum comfort by being shaped to your ear.
- Can be programmed with different settings for different places.
- Can minimize background noise.
- Is tuned to amplify only the frequencies you have a hard time hearing.
- Can be programed to identify specific sound profiles, such as the human voice, and amplify them.
- Is set up specifically to your hearing loss symptoms by a highly skilled hearing specialist.
- Has batteries that are long lasting.
Your hearing deserves better than cheap
Everybody has a budget, and that budget is going to limit your hearing aid options no matter what price range you’re looking in.
This is why an affordable solution tends to be the focus. The long-term advantages of hearing aids and hearing loss management are well recognized. This is why an affordable solution is what your focus should be. Don’t forget, cheap is less than your hearing deserves.”
