Are hearing aids actually worth the money? People who have hearing loss are usually worried about the cost. Still, when you invest in a house you don’t see the price and think, “well, being homeless is less expensive”! Price tag is not the only value consideration when it comes to getting hearing aids.
When shopping for a big-ticket item like this you really need to ask yourself, “what do I get out of wearing hearing aids, and what’s the cost of not having them?” If you decide not to get hearing aids, there will be a financial cost, as it turns out. Your choices should also factor in these costs. Understand why you will save money in the long run if you decide to purchase hearing aids.
You Will End Up Spending More if You Decide on Cheaper Hearing Aids
While searching the hearing aids marketplace, you will undoubtedly come across cheaper devices which appear to be less costly. You could even purchase a hearing aid off of the internet costing less than a dinner.
You get what you pay for in quality with over-the-counter hearing devices. When you purchase these devices, you’re actually purchasing an amplification device like earbuds, not a genuine hearing aid. They just crank up the sound all around you, including noises you don’t want amplified.
Personalized programming is the best feature of a high-quality hearing aid, that you don’t have if you buy a cheap hearing device. You can obtain an excellent sound by having a quality hearing aid tuned to address your distinct hearing requirements.
The batteries in store bought hearing aids are also low quality. It gets very expensive when you need to keep replacing dead batteries. If you use the amplification device regularly, you could possibly wind up switching the battery up to a couple of times each day. The battery is likely to die when you need it most, also, so prepare to bring lots of spares around with you everywhere you go. Do you actually save cash if you need to exchange dead batteries all of the time?
Higher quality hearing aids last a lot longer because they are made with more efficient electronics. Some even have rechargeable batteries, eliminating the need for repeated replacements.
Career Issues
It’s possible that you will earn less if you choose not to wear hearing aids or to wear cheap ones. A 2013 study published in The Hearing Journal reports that less money is made by adults who have hearing loss – as much as 25 percent less, and are more likely to be without a job.
And why? Communication is essential in every job and among the many factors involved, that one is dominant. If you’re going to deliver good results, you have to be able to hear what your employer is saying. You have to be capable of listening to customers so that you can help them. You’ll probably end up missing out on the whole content of the conversation if you are always struggling to hear what people are saying. The bottom line is that it’s just about impossible to succeed if you can’t be a part of the conversation.
The ordeal of trying to hear on the job will cause stress to you physically, as well. You will find yourself physically exhausted from the energy used trying to make out what people are saying and stressed about whether you heard them correctly. Here are some effects of stress:
- Your relationships
- Your ability to sleep
- Your immune system
- Your overall quality of life
All of these have the possibility of impacting your work efficiency and bringing down your income as a consequence.
Needing to go to the ER more often
Loss of hearing comes with safety concerns. If you don’t have quality hearing aids, it will be dangerous for you to go across the street or operate a vehicle. If you can’t hear something, how can you avoid it? What about public warning systems like a tornado alert or smoke alarm?
For jobs including a manufacturing facility or a construction site, you need to be able to hear so that you and your coworkers to stay safe. That means that not using hearing aids is not only a safety hazard but also something which can limit your career possibilities.
Financial security is also a factor here. Did you pay the waitress too much for dinner because you couldn’t hear her? Do you really require all those new tv features that you failed to hear the salesperson discussing with you? You might end up spending more than you should for features you don’t really need.
Brain Health
One of the most important problems that come with hearing loss is the increased chance of dementia. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that Alzheimer’s disease costs people more than 56,000 dollars each year. Dementia accounts for 11 billion dollars in Medicare expense annually.
The chance of getting dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is a risk factor linked to hearing loss. Someone who has ignored their hearing loss for a long time raises their chance of brain impairment by five fold. The risk of getting dementia goes up by three times with modest hearing loss and doubles with even mild hearing loss. Hearing aids return the danger to normal.
Of course, there is a cost to purchasing hearing aids. If you look at the costs you will encounter by deciding not to get hearing aids or purchasing cheaper ones, the choice is obvious. Schedule an appointment with your hearing care specialist today.