Finding a bargain just feels great, right? It can be thrilling when you’ve found a great deal on something, and the bigger discount, the more satisfied you are. So letting your coupon make your shopping decisions for you, always going after the least expensive items, is all too easy. But chasing a bargain when it comes to buying hearing aids can be a big oversight.
Health repercussions can result from going for the cheapest option if you need hearing aids to manage hearing loss. Avoiding the development of health problems including depression, dementia, and the risk of a fall is the entire point of using hearing aids after all. The trick is to find the hearing aid that best fits your lifestyle, your hearing requirements, and your budget.
Tips for choosing affordable hearing aids
Affordable is not the same thing as cheap. Affordability, as well as functionality, are what you should be looking for. That will help you get the most ideal hearing aid possible for your individual budget. These tips will help.
Tip #1: Research before you buy: Affordable hearing aids exist
Hearing aid’s reputation for being incredibly expensive is not necessarily reflected in the reality of the situation. Most manufacturers sell hearing aids in a number of price points and work with financing companies to make their devices more affordable. If you’ve started searching the bargain bin for hearing aids because you’ve already decided that really good effective models are too expensive, it could have significant health consequences.
Tip #2: Find out what your insurance will cover
Some or even all of the cost of hearing aids could 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 – find hearing aids that can tune to your hearing needs
In some aspects, your hearing aids are a lot like prescription glasses. The frame is fairly universal (depending on your sense of fashion, of course), but the prescription is adjusted for your particular needs. Similarly, hearing aids may look alike cosmetically, but each hearing aid is calibrated to the individual user’s hearing loss needs.
You’re not going to get the same benefits by grabbing some cheap hearing device from the clearance shelf (or any helpful 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 usually irregular, you can hear some frequencies and voices, but not others. If you make it loud enough to hear the frequencies that are low, 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 issue.
Tip #4: Not all hearing aids have the same features
It can be tempting to believe that all of the modern technology in a quality hearing aid is just “bells and whistles”. The problem with this idea is that in order to hear sounds clearly (sounds like, you know, bells and whistles), you probably need some of that technology. The specialized technology in hearing aids can be dialed in to the user’s level of hearing loss. Many modern designs have artificial intelligence that helps block out background noise or communicate with each other to help you hear better. Also, choosing a model that fits your lifestyle will be simpler if you take into account 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 up our last tip.
Tip #5: An amplification device is not the same thing as a hearing aid
Okay, say this with 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 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 simply isn’t the case.
Let’s have a closer look. An amplifier:
- Gives the user the ability to adjust the basic volume but that’s about it.
- Is typically made cheaply.
- Takes all sounds and makes them louder.
Conversely, a hearing aid:
- Is set up specifically to your hearing loss symptoms by a highly skilled hearing specialist.
- Can be shaped specifically to your ears for maximum comfort.
- Will help you preserve the health of your hearing.
- Has batteries that are long lasting.
- Is calibrated to amplify only the frequencies you have difficulty hearing.
- Can be programmed with different settings for different locations.
- Can minimize background noise.
- Can pick out and amplify specific sound categories (such as the human voice).
Your ability to hear is too important to go cheap
Everyone 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 treatment are well documented. This is why an affordable solution is what your focus should be. Just remember that your hearing deserves better than “cheap.”