Saving money just feels good, right? Getting a good deal can be thrilling, and more rewarding the bigger the deal. It’s a little too easy, then, to make the price your chief consideration, to always choose the least expensive option, to let your coupons make your buying choices 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, going for the “cheapest” option can have health consequences. Preventing the development of health problems including depression, dementia, and the risk of a fall is the whole point of using hearing aids in the first place. Finding the correct hearing aid to suit your hearing needs, lifestyle, and budget is the key.
Tips for finding affordable hearing aids
Affordable is not equivalent cheap. Keep an eye on affordability as well as functionality. That will help you find the most ideal hearing aid possible for your personal budget. These tips will help.
Tip #1: Research before you buy: Affordable hearing aids are available
Hearing aids have a reputation for taking a toll on your pocketbook, a reputation, however, is not necessarily reflected by reality. Most hearing aid makers will partner up with financing companies to make the device more budget friendly and also have hearing aids in a number of prices. 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 effective options, and that can have a long-term, detrimental affect 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. As a matter of fact, some states require that insurance cover them for both children and adults. It never hurts to ask. There are government programs that frequently supply hearing aids for veterans.
Tip #3: Your hearing loss is unique – choose hearing aids that can calibrate to your hearing situation
In some ways, your hearing aids are a lot like prescription glasses. Depending on your sense of style, the frame comes in a few options, but the exact prescription differs considerably from person to person. Similarly, hearing aids might look alike cosmetically, but each hearing aid is tuned to the individual user’s hearing loss needs.
You won’t get the same results by grabbing some cheap hearing device from the clearance shelf (or any useful results at all in many cases). These amplification devices boost all frequencies instead of boosting only the frequencies you’re having a hard time hearing. Why is this so important? Hearing loss is often irregular, you can hear some frequencies and sounds, but not others. If you raise the volume enough to hear the frequencies that are too quiet, you’ll make it uncomfortable in the frequencies you can hear without amplification. You will probably end up not using this cheap amplification device because it doesn’t solve your real problem.
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 simply “bells and whistles”. But you will need some of that technology to hear sounds properly. The sophisticated technology in hearing aids can be dialed in to the user’s level of hearing loss. Many modern designs have artificial intelligence that helps filter out background noise or communicate with each other to help you hear better. Also, selecting a model that fits your lifestyle will be easier if you take into account where (and why) you’ll be using your hearing aids.
It’s essential, in order to compensate for your hearing loss in a reliable way, that you have some of this technology. 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 isn’t a hearing aid
Okay, repeat after me: a hearing amplification device is not a hearing aid. If you get nothing else from this article, we hope it’s that. Because the providers of amplification devices have a monetary interest in persuading the consumer that their devices work like hearing aids. But that just isn’t true.
Let’s have a closer look. A hearing amplification device:
- Is typically built cheaply.
- Takes all sounds and turns up their volume.
- Provides the user with little more than simple volume controls (if that).
A hearing aid, on the other hand:
- Has the ability to change settings when you change locations.
- Will help you maintain the health of your hearing.
- Can minimize background noise.
- Is tuned to amplify only the frequencies you have trouble hearing.
- Has batteries that are long lasting.
- Is adjusted specifically to your hearing loss symptoms by a highly qualified hearing professional.
- Can achieve maximum comfort by being shaped to your ear.
- Can be programed to recognize distinct sound profiles, like the human voice, and amplify them.
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 option tends to be the focus. When it comes to hearing loss, the long term advantages of hearing loss treatment and hearing aids is well recognized. That’s why you need to work on an affordable solution. Just remember that your hearing deserves better than “cheap.”
