We all enjoy a good bargain. But you need to be careful and look out for small details in regards to your health.
We know, it’s confusing, the names are rather similar, but hearing aids and hearing amplifiers are not identical. And making the wrong selection could have significant ramifications for your hearing and your overall health.
What is a hearing amplifier?
A hearing amplifier is a small device that, when placed in your ear, raises the volume of the sounds around you. These are usually very simple, one-dimensional devices which the government classifies as personal sound amplification devices. The volume of the world is essentially turned up.
These devices are usually not suggested for people with moderate to significant hearing loss because of their one-size-fits-all strategy.
Distinct difference between hearing aids and personal amplifiers
It begins to become fairly obvious 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 encouraged for those with hearing loss.
Both kinds of devices are capable of raising the volume of external sound. But one of these devices has a much higher degree of amplification technology and sophistication.
- Whatever environment you find yourself, your hearing aids can calibrate to it. The acoustics of any given place will change depending on a list of variables. Some hearing aids can adjust to these changes automatically. A dedicated device or smartphone can tune 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 environments, meaning there will be fewer places you wish to avoid.
- With hearing aids, only select wavelengths of sound are amplified. Because hearing loss frequently progresses wavelength by wavelength. Wavelengths at the higher and lower end of the scale are commonly the first to go. Hearing aids work to fill in the gaps in your hearing rather than just making everything louder. For individuals who have hearing loss, this selective approach is more effective.
- Hearing aids are specially manufactured to help you process speech. Because communication is so essential in our lives and also because of the uneven way hearing loss develops, this is an important function. As a result, hearing aid manufacturers have invested enormous resources into maximizing the clarity of speech above all else. In order to make sure voices can be heard clearly even in a crowded room, sophisticated technology and algorithms are bundled inside of modern hearing aids.
To put it bluntly, correctly managing hearing loss depends on these capabilities. In most cases, personal amplifiers don’t have these features.
Finding the best solution at an affordable price
Neglected hearing loss can bring about cognitive decline, not to mention increasingly diminished hearing abilities. With amplifiers, you’re likely to do more harm to your hearing as the device doesn’t distinguish frequencies and will most likely turn everything up to unsafe levels. And that isn’t good for anybody.
Unless your hearing loss is from earwax, hearing aids and certain surgeries are the only approved treatment options for hearing loss right now. You won’t save any money long term by neglecting to get treatment for your hearing loss. Untreated hearing loss has been demonstrated to increase your general healthcare costs more than 40 percent. Luckily, there are affordable options. We can help.
References
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20373077
