Are hearing aids really worth the money? The cost is commonly a worry for individuals who have hearing loss. You wouldn’t choose homelessness over paying for a new house. The real value of hearing aids is about much more than the cost.
When shopping for a big-ticket item such as this you really should 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 buy hearing aids, there will be a financial cost, as it turns out. Your decisions should also factor in these expenses. Bear in mind a few good reasons why purchasing hearing aids will save you money over time.
If You Decide to Buy Less Expensive Hearing Aids, You Will Wind up Spending More
While shopping the hearing aids market, you will undoubtedly come across cheaper devices which seem to be less costly. If you shop for hearing aids on the internet, you will probably find some that are cheaper than a nice dinner.
With regards to over the counter hearing aids, you get what you pay for. These devices are not real hearing aids, they’re really amplification devices similar to earpods. All of the sounds around you, including noises you don’t want to hear, are cranked up.
A high quality hearing aid is custom programable which is not a feature that cheaper devices provide. If your hearing aids can be programmed to target your distinct hearing needs, you will have a much higher quality experience.
The batteries in store bought hearing aids are also low quality. Spending large amounts of extra money on batteries can get expensive. You could wind up changing out batteries a couple of times each day if you go with a cheap amplification device. You’ll need to bring extra batteries around because they will normally fail when you most need them. Do you really save money if you need to replace worn out batteries all of the time?
Higher quality hearing aids last a lot longer because they are made with more efficient electronics. Many designs don’t even need replacement batteries at all because they’re rechargeable.
Issues With Your Career
Deciding to not wear hearing aids, or using cheap ones will be costly at your job. Research conducted in 2013 and published in The Hearing Journal states that adults that have hearing loss make less money – as much as 25 percent less, and often have a hard time maintaining a job at all..
Why? Communication is essential in every field and among the many factors involved, that one is dominant. If you’re going to give good results, you have to be able to hear what your employer is saying. You need to be able to listen to customers so that you can assist them. You’ll most likely end up missing the whole content of the discussion if you are always struggling to hear what people are saying. The bottom line is that it’s nearly impossible to excel if you can’t take part in conversation.
The struggle 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 out about whether you heard them right. Some impacts of stress:
- Your relationships
- Immune health
- Your overall quality of life
- Your ability to sleep
All of these have the chance of impacting your work efficiency and lowering your income as a result.
More Trips to The ER
There are safety problems that come with loss of hearing. If you don’t have quality hearing aids, it will become dangerous for you to go across the street or drive a vehicle. How can you stay clear of something if you’re not able to hear it? How about emergency warning systems like a tornado alert or smoke alarm?
For quite a few jobs, hearing is necessary for workplace safety like job-sites or production factories. So your safety, as well as your career options, will be limited if you don’t use the quality hearing aids you need.
Financial safety is a factor here, also. Did the waitress say that you owe 25 dollars or 85? What did the sales representative say about the features of the tv you’re checking out and do you really need them? Perhaps the lower priced style would be all you would require, but it is difficult to know if you can’t hear the person talk about the difference.
Brain Health
One of the most critical problems that come with hearing loss is the increased chance of dementia. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that Alzheimer’s disease costs individuals more than 56,000 dollars a year. 11 billion dollars every year is spent in medicare costs to treat dementia.
Hearing loss is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and various other kinds of dementia. Somebody who has ignored their hearing loss for a long time raises their chance of brain impairment by five fold. The chance of getting dementia increases by three times with moderate hearing loss and doubles with even minimal hearing loss. Hearing aids bring the danger back to a normal level.
There’s little doubt that a hearing aid will cost you a bit. If you analyze all the concerns that come with going without one or buying a cheaper device, it’s unquestionably a sound financial decision. Make an appointment with your hearing care professional right away.