It just feels good to save money, right? Getting a good deal can be thrilling, and more rewarding the bigger the bargain. It’s a little too easy, then, to make the price your chief consideration, to always go for the least expensive option, to let your coupons make your consumer decisions for you. But chasing a bargain when it comes to buying hearing aids can be a big mistake.
Health repercussions can result from choosing the cheapest option if you need hearing aids to treat hearing loss. Preventing the development of health problems like depression, dementia, and the risk of a fall is the entire point of using hearing aids in the first place. Choosing the correct hearing aid to fit your hearing needs, lifestyle, and budget is the trick.
Finding affordable hearing aids – some tips
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 allowing you to get the correct hearing aids for your personal requirements and budget. These are helpful tips.
Tip #1: Research before you buy: Affordable hearing aids are available
Hearing aid’s reputation for being extremely expensive is not always reflected in the reality of the situation. Most manufacturers sell hearing aids in a wide range of price points and work with financing companies to make their devices more budget friendly. If you’ve already decided that the most reliable 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 lasting, harmful impact on your hearing and overall health.
Tip #2: Find out what your insurance will cover
Some or even all of the cost of hearing aids might be covered by your insurance. Some states, in fact, have laws requiring insurance companies to cover hearing aids for children 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
Hearing aids are, in some aspects, a lot like prescription glasses. Depending on your sense of fashion, the frame comes in a few options, 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 is not going to give you the same results (or, in many cases, results that are even remotely useful). These are more like amplifiers that raise the sound of all frequencies, not just the ones you’re having difficulty hearing. What’s the significance of this? Normally, hearing loss will only impact some frequencies while you can hear others perfectly. If you increase all frequencies, the ones you have no problem hearing will be too loud. 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
It can be tempting to think that all of the modern technology in a good hearing aid is just “bells and whistles”. The problem is that if you wish to hear sounds clearly (sounds like, you know, bells and whistles), you likely need some of that technology. The sophisticated technology in hearing aids can be dialed in to the user’s level of hearing loss. Background sound can be filtered out with many of these modern designs and some can connect with each other. Also, choosing a model that fits your lifestyle will be simpler 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. Hearing aids are much more advanced than a basic, tiny speaker that boosts the volume of everything. And that brings up our last tip.
Tip #5: A hearing amplification device is not a hearing aid
Okay, say this with me: A hearing aid is not the same thing as an 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 just isn’t the case.
Let’s take a closer look. A hearing amplification device:
- Is typically cheaply built.
- Gives the user the ability to control the basic volume but that’s about it.
- Takes all sounds and turns up their volume.
A hearing aid, conversely:
- Can be programed to recognize specific sound profiles, such as the human voice, and amplify them.
- Can be programmed with various settings for different places.
- Has long-lasting batteries.
- Boosts the frequencies that you have a hard time hearing and leaves the frequencies you can hear alone.
- Is adjusted specifically to your hearing loss symptoms by a highly qualified hearing specialist.
- Can achieve maximum comfort by being shaped to your ear.
- Will help protect your hearing health.
- Can minimize background noise.
Your hearing deserves better than cheap
Everyone has a budget, and that budget is going to limit your hearing aid choices regardless of what price range you’re looking in.
This is why an affordable option tends to be the focus. The long-term advantages of hearing aids and hearing loss treatment 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.”