How to Find Affordable Hearing Aids

Picture of green piggy bank representing affordable hearing aids and a good deal.

Who doesn’t love getting a good bargain? But you should be careful and watch out for small details when it comes to your health.

We know, it can be confusing, the names are rather similar, but hearing aids and hearing amplifiers are not equivalent. And your overall hearing and health could suffer serious consequences if you make the wrong choice about this.

What is a hearing amplifier?

A hearing amplifier is a little device that, when put in your ear, raises the volume of the sounds around you. Technically classified as personal sound amplification products by the government, these gadgets tend to be very simple and one-dimensional. The volume of the world is basically turned up.

Because of their one-size-fits-all strategy, hearing amplifiers aren’t appropriate for people who have moderate to extensive hearing loss.

Distinct difference between hearing aids and personal amplifiers

Once people learn that hearing amplifiers are not suggested for individuals with even modest hearing loss, the differences between the two devices begin to become rather plain. Hearing aids, obviously, are recommended for people who suffer from hearing loss.

Both types of devices are capable of raising the volume of outside sound. The biggest difference between the two devices is how cutting edge that amplification is.

Whatever environment you find yourself, your hearing aids can calibrate to it. The acoustics of any given space will change depending on a lengthy list of factors. Some hearing aids can fine tune to these changes automatically. A dedicated device or smartphone can tune hearing aids that don’t do it automatically. You will avoid fewer places because you will be able to hear better in a wider variety of places as your hearing aids make minute adjustments.
Hearing aids are specially designed to help you process speech. Because communication is so central in our lives and also because of the irregular way hearing loss develops, this is an important function. Because of this, hearing aid manufacturers have invested significant resources into enhancing the clarity of speech above all else. In order to make certain voices can be heard clearly even in a noisy room, advanced technology and algorithms are packed inside of modern hearing aids.
Hearing aids are designed to pick out and boost specific wavelengths of sound. That’s because people normally lose their hearing one frequency at a time. Either high-frequency sounds or low-frequency sounds commonly disappear first. Hearing aids work to fill in the gaps in your hearing rather than just making everything louder. This selective approach is much more beneficial for people with hearing loss.

To put it bluntly, correctly treating hearing loss depends on these capabilities. Usually, personal amplifiers don’t have these features.

The right deal for your ears

Along with a decreased ability to hear, untreated hearing loss can also lead to cognitive decline. With amplifiers, you’re likely to do more damage to your hearing because the device doesn’t distinguish frequencies and will most likely turn everything up to unsafe levels. And who wants to do that?

Currently, the only approved treatments for hearing loss, if it’s not caused by earwax, are some surgeries and hearing aids. Dismissing hearing loss and bypassing treatment doesn’t save you money long term. General healthcare costs have been shown to increase by over 40% with neglected hearing loss. Luckily, there are affordable options. We can help.