Who doesn’t love getting a good bargain? But you need to be careful and watch out for little details when it comes to your health.
The names “hearing aid” and “hearing amplifier” may seem similar but they are actually entirely different devices. And your overall hearing and health could suffer major repercussions if you make the wrong choice about this.
What is a hearing amplifier?
A small device that goes in your ear, a hearing amplifier increases the volume of external sound. Technically categorized as personal sound amplification products by the government, these gadgets tend to be fairly basic and one-dimensional. The volume of the world is basically cranked up.
These devices are usually not suggested for people with moderate to severe hearing loss because of their one-size-fits-all strategy.
Clear difference between hearing aids and personal amplifiers
It starts to become pretty apparent that hearing aids are not the same as hearing amplification devices when you consider that amplifiers are not recommended for people with even moderate hearing loss. Hearing aids, obviously, are recommended for individuals who suffer from hearing loss.
Both hearing aids and hearing amplifiers make things louder. The biggest difference between the two devices is how cutting edge that amplification is.
- Hearing aids are made to identify and magnify certain frequencies of sound. That’s because people normally lose their hearing one frequency at a time. Wavelengths at the higher and lower end of the spectrum are generally the first to go. Hearing aids work to fill in the holes in your hearing rather than just making everything louder. For people who have hearing loss, this selective approach is more effective.
- Whatever environment you find yourself, your hearing aids can tune in to it. There are numerous factors that will determine the specific acoustics of a space. These adjustments can even be made automatically with some modern hearing aids. 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 little adjustments.
- Hearing aids are specifically designed to help you comprehend speech. To some extent, that’s as a consequence of the uneven way hearing loss progresses, but it’s also because communication is such an important function of your hearing. As a result, hearing aid manufacturers have invested monumental resources into maximizing the clarity of speech above everything else. There are state-of-the-art algorithms and processes working inside of hearing aids to make sure that, even in a crowded and noisy space, voices come through clearly.
To put it bluntly, properly treating hearing loss depends on these capabilities. In most cases, personal amplifiers don’t have these features.
Finding the best option at an affordable price
Neglected hearing loss can lead to cognitive decline, not to mention increasingly diminished hearing abilities. With amplifiers, you’re very likely to do more harm to your hearing because the device doesn’t distinguish frequencies and will most likely turn everything up to unsafe volumes. And that’s not good for anybody.
Unless your hearing loss is being caused by earwax, hearing aids and some surgeries are the only approved treatments for hearing loss at this time. Dismissing hearing loss and avoiding treatment doesn’t save you money long term. Untreated hearing loss has been shown to increase your overall healthcare costs more than 40 percent. Luckily, there are affordable solutions. Just ask us.
References
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20373077
