It just feels great to save money, right? Getting a good deal can be thrilling, and more gratifying the bigger the deal. It’s a little too easy, then, to make the price your main consideration, to always go for the least expensive option, to let your coupons make your buying choices for you. But chasing a bargain when it comes to buying hearing aids can be a big oversight.
If you need hearing aids to treat hearing loss, going for the “cheapest” option can have health repercussions. Avoiding the development of health issues 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 suits your lifestyle, your hearing requirements, and your budget.
Tips for finding affordable hearing aids
Affordable is not the same thing as cheap. Keep an eye on affordability as well as 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 are available
Hearing aids have a reputation for putting a dent in your pocketbook, a reputation, however, is not necessarily reflected by reality. Most manufacturers produce hearing aids in a broad range of price points and work with financing companies to make their devices more budget friendly. If you’ve already decided that the most effective hearing aids are too expensive, you’re probably more inclined 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: Find out what your insurance will cover
Some or even all of the expense of hearing aids could be covered by your insurance. In fact, some states require that insurance cover them for both children and adults. Asking never hurts. If you’re a veteran, you may be eligible for hearing aids through government programs.
Tip #3: Find hearing aids that can be tuned to your hearing loss
In some ways, your hearing aids are similar to prescription glasses. Depending on your sense of style, the frame comes in a few options, but the exact prescription differs significantly from person to person. Hearing aids, too, have distinct settings, which we can tune for you, personalized to your exact needs.
Picking up a cheap hearing device from the clearance shelf is not going to give you the same results (or any useful results at all in many cases). These are more like amplification devices that increase the sound of all frequencies, not only the ones you’re having problems hearing. Why is this so significant? Usually, hearing loss will only impact some frequencies while you can hear others perfectly fine. 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 a device. In other words, it doesn’t really solve the problem and you’ll end up not using the cheaper device.
Tip #4: Not all hearing aids have the same features
There’s a temptation to view all of the great technology in modern hearing aids and imagine that it’s all extra, simply 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 most likely need some of that technology. Hearing aids have innovative technologies calibrated specifically for people who have hearing loss. Many modern designs have artificial intelligence that helps block out background noise or connect 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 crucial to compensate for your hearing loss in a healthy way. A little speaker that cranks the volume up on everything is far from the sophistication of a modern hearing aid. Which brings us to our last tip.
Tip #5: An amplification device isn’t the same thing as a hearing aid
Alright, say this with me: a hearing amplification device is not a hearing aid. This is the number one takeaway from this article. Because hearing amplification devices try very hard to make you think they work the same way as a hearing aid for a fraction of the price. But that’s untruthful marketing.
Let’s break it down. An amplifier:
- Supplies the user with little more than basic volume controls (if that).
- Is typically cheaply built.
- Turns up the volume on all sounds.
Conversely, a hearing aid:
- Can minimize background noise.
- Can pick out and boost specific sound types (such as the human voice).
- Is set up specifically to your hearing loss symptoms by a highly qualified hearing specialist.
- Has long-lasting batteries.
- Can be programmed with different settings for different locations.
- Can be molded specifically to your ears for optimal comfort.
- Increases the frequencies that you have a difficult time hearing and leaves the frequencies you can hear alone.
- Will help you safeguard the health of your hearing.
Your hearing deserves better than cheap
Everyone has a budget, and that budget is going to restrict your hearing aid choices no matter what price range you’re looking in.
That’s why we often highlight the affordable part of this. When it comes to hearing loss, the long term advantages of hearing loss treatment and hearing aids is well documented. That’s why you need to work on an affordable solution. Just remember that your hearing deserves better than “cheap.”
