It just feels great to find a bargain, right? Getting a great deal can be thrilling, and more rewarding the better the deal. So letting your coupon make your shopping decisions for you, always chasing after the least expensive products, is all too easy. 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 treat hearing loss. After all, the entire point of using hearing aids is to be able to hear well and to prevent health issues related to hearing loss like mental decline, depression, and an increased chance of falls. Finding the correct hearing aid to fit your hearing needs, lifestyle, and budget is the trick.
Finding affordable hearing aids – some tips
Affordable is not the same thing as cheap. Keep an eye on affordability and functionality. That will help you find the best hearing aid possible for your personal budget. These are helpful tips.
Tip #1: Do your homework: Affordable hearing aids exist
Hearing aids have a reputation for taking a toll on your pocketbook, a reputation, however, is not always represented by reality. Most manufacturers produce hearing aids in a broad range of price points and work with financing companies to make their devices more affordable. If you’ve already decided that the most effective hearing aids are out of reach, you’re probably more inclined to search the bargain bin than seek out affordable and reliable options, and that can have a long-term, detrimental impact on your hearing and overall health.
Tip #2: Find out what your insurance will cover
Some or even all of the expense of hearing aids may be covered by your insurance. Some states, in fact, have laws mandating insurance companies to cover hearing aids for kids or adults. It never hurts to ask. There are government programs that often supply hearing aids for veterans.
Tip #3: Your hearing loss is unique – choose hearing aids that can tune to your hearing situation
In some ways, 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. Similarly, hearing aids may look alike cosmetically, but each hearing aid is tuned to the individual user’s hearing loss needs.
Purchasing a cheap hearing device from the clearance shelf won’t give you the same results (or any useful results at all in many instances). 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 certain frequencies and sounds, but not others. 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. Simply put, it doesn’t really solve the problem and you’ll wind up not using the cheaper device.
Tip #4: Different hearing aids have different capabilities
There’s a tendency to look at all of the great 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. Hearing aids have specialized technologies tuned specifically for those with hearing loss. Many modern models have artificial intelligence that helps filter out background noise or communicate with each other to help you hear better. In addition, thinking about where (and why) you’ll be using your aids will help you choose 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. And that brings us to our last tip.
Tip #5: An amplification device isn’t the same thing as a hearing aid
Okay, repeat after me: A hearing aid is not the same thing as an amplification device. If you take nothing else away from this article, we hope it’s that. Because the makers of amplification devices have a financial interest in convincing the consumer that their devices work like hearing aids. But that simply isn’t true.
Let’s break it down. A hearing amplification device:
- Provides the user with little more than basic volume controls (if that).
- Is usually made cheaply.
- Turns up the volume on all sounds.
Conversely, a hearing aid:
- Can identify and amplify specific sound categories (such as the human voice).
- Can reduce background noise.
- Can be shaped specifically to your ears for maximum comfort.
- Has batteries that are long lasting.
- Will help you safeguard the health of your hearing.
- Can be programmed with various settings for different locations.
- Has highly skilled specialists that adjust your hearing aids to your hearing loss symptoms.
- Increases the frequencies that you have a difficult time hearing and leaves the frequencies you can hear alone.
Your hearing deserves better than cheap
Regardless of what your budget is, that budget will determine your options depending on your overall price range.
That’s why we often highlight the affordable part of this. When it comes to hearing loss, the long term advantages of hearing loss management and hearing aids is well documented. This is why an affordable solution is where your attention should be. Don’t forget, cheap is less than your hearing deserves.”