Who doesn’t enjoy getting a good bargain? But when it has to do with your health, be careful what you buy and pay attention to the little details.
The names “hearing aid” and “hearing amplifier” might seem similar but they are actually very different devices. And making the wrong selection could have important ramifications for your hearing and your general health.
Hearing amplifiers
A small device that goes in your ear, a hearing amplifier raises the volume of external sound. These are usually very simple, one-dimensional devices which the government categorizes as personal sound amplification devices. A hearing amplifier is like cranking the volume up on the world.
These devices are generally not recommended for people with moderate to severe hearing loss because of their one-size-fits-all strategy.
Hearing amplifier are not hearing aids
It begins to become fairly apparent that hearing aids aren’t the same as hearing amplification devices when you recognize that amplifiers are not recommended for people with even moderate hearing loss. Obviously, hearing aids are recommended for individuals with hearing loss.
Both hearing aids and hearing amplifiers have the ability to increase volumes. But one of these devices has a much higher level of amplification technology and sophistication.
- Hearing aids are made to pick out and magnify certain wavelengths of sound. Because hearing loss often progresses frequency by frequency. Either high-frequency sounds or low-frequency sounds generally disappear first. Hearing aids work to fill in the gaps in your hearing rather than just making everything louder. This selective strategy is far more beneficial for people with hearing loss.
- Hearing aids are specifically manufactured to help you process speech. To some extent, that’s as a consequence of the irregular way hearing loss develops, but it’s also because communication is such a fundamental function of your hearing. Because of this, hearing aid makers have invested enormous resources into enhancing the clarity of speech above all else. In order to make sure voices can be heard clearly even in a noisy room, state-of-the-art technology and algorithms are packed inside of modern hearing aids.
- Hearing aids can be tuned to your environment. There are numerous factors that will influence the exact acoustics of a space. These adjustments can even happen automatically with some modern hearing aids. A dedicated device or smartphone can calibrate hearing aids that don’t do it automatically. You will avoid fewer locations because you will be capable of hearing better in a wider variety of settings as your hearing aids make little adjustments.
Bottom line, these capabilities are crucial components of effectively treating hearing loss. In most cases, personal amplifiers don’t have these features.
The right deal for your ears
Along with a decreased ability to hear, neglected hearing loss can also result in cognitive decline. With amplifiers, you’re very likely to do more harm to your hearing because the device doesn’t differentiate frequencies and will most likely turn everything up to unsafe volumes. And who needs to do that?
Currently, the only recommended treatments for hearing loss, if it’s not a result of earwax, are some surgeries and hearing aids. Neglecting hearing loss and bypassing treatment doesn’t save you money ultimately. Overall healthcare costs have been shown to increase by more than 40% with untreated hearing loss. The good news is, there are budget friendly solutions. Just ask us.
References
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20373077