Who doesn’t enjoy finding a good bargain? But you need to be careful and be aware of small details when it comes to your health.
The terms “hearing aid” and “hearing amplifier” may seem similar but they are actually entirely different devices. And making the wrong choice could have significant implications for your hearing and your general health.
What is a hearing amplifier?
A small device that goes inside of your ear, a hearing amplifier raises the volume of external sound. Technically classified as personal sound amplification products by the government, these gadgets tend to be very simple and one-dimensional. A hearing amplifier is like turning the volume of the world up.
These devices are typically not recommended for people with moderate to significant hearing loss because of their one-size-fits-all approach.
Hearing amplifier are not hearing aids
Once consumers learn that hearing amplifiers aren’t recommended for people with even modest hearing loss, the differences between the two devices start to become pretty stark. Hearing aids, obviously, are recommended for people with hearing loss.
Both types of devices are capable of raising the volume of outside sound. But one of these devices has a much higher level of amplification technology and sophistication.
- Selecting and amplifying speech is one of the main features of a hearing aid. In part, that’s as a consequence of the irregular way hearing loss develops, but it’s also because communication is such an important function of your hearing. Because of this, hearing aid manufacturers have invested significant resources into improving the clarity of speech above everything else. In order to make sure voices come through clearly even in a noisy room, state-of-the-art technology and algorithms are packed inside of modern hearing aids.
- With hearing aids, only particular wavelengths of sound are amplified. That’s because people tend to lose their hearing one frequency at a time. Wavelengths at the higher and lower end of the spectrum are generally the first to go. Rather than making everything louder, hearing aids work to plug holes in what you’re hearing. This selective approach is far more effective for individuals who suffer from hearing loss.
- Hearing aids can be tuned to your environment. There are quite a few factors that will affect the specific 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. By making small adjustments to the settings of your hearing aid, you’re able to hear better in a wider variety of settings, meaning there will be fewer locations you wish to avoid.
To put it bluntly, correctly managing hearing loss depends on these features. And these are features that are not present in most personal hearing amplifiers.
The right deal for your ears
Along with a diminished ability to hear, untreated hearing loss can also result in mental decline. With amplifiers, you’re likely to do more harm to your hearing as the device doesn’t differentiate frequencies and will most likely turn everything up to unsafe volumes. And who wants to do that?
Unless your hearing loss is from earwax, hearing aids and some surgeries are the only approved treatments for hearing loss right now. You won’t save any money in the long run by neglecting to get treatment for your hearing loss. General healthcare costs have been shown to increase by more than 40% with untreated hearing loss. The good news is, there are affordable solutions. We can help.
Call Today to Set Up an Appointment
References
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20373077