We all love a good bargain. But you should be careful and watch out for little details in regards to your health.

We know, it can be confusing, the names are very similar, but hearing aids and hearing amplifiers are not the same. And making the wrong selection could have important ramifications for your hearing and your overall health.

Hearing amplifiers

A little device that goes inside of your ear, a hearing amplifier increases the volume of outside sound. Technically classified as personal sound amplification products by the government, these devices tend to be fairly basic and one-dimensional. A hearing amplifier is like cranking the volume of the world up.

These devices are usually not recommended for people with moderate to severe hearing loss because of their one-size-fits-all approach.

Clear difference between hearing aids and personal amplifiers

Once consumers learn that hearing amplifiers are not recommended for individuals with even modest hearing loss, the differences between the two devices begin to become pretty plain. Of course, hearing aids are appropriate for individuals who cope with hearing loss.

Both hearing aids and hearing amplifiers make things louder. But one of these devices has a much higher level of amplification technology and sophistication.

• Hearing aids can be calibrated for your environment. There are numerous variables that will influence the specific acoustics of a space. These adjustments can even happen 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 capable of hearing better in a wider variety of settings as your hearing aids make minute adjustments.
• Hearing aids are specifically designed to help you hear speech. In part, that’s due to the irregular way hearing loss progresses, but it’s also because communication is such an essential function of your hearing. Because of this, hearing aid manufacturers have invested significant resources into enhancing the clarity of speech above everything else. There are state-of-the-art algorithms and processes working inside of hearing aids to ensure that, even in a crowded and noisy room, voices come through clearly.
• Hearing aids are designed to identify and boost specific wavelengths of sound. That’s because people often lose their hearing one frequency at a time. Either high-frequency sounds or low-frequency sounds typically disappear first. Instead of making everything louder, hearing aids work to plug holes in what you’re hearing. For people who have hearing loss, this selective approach is more effective.

Simply put, these capabilities are vital elements of correctly treating hearing loss. And these are features that are not present in the majority of personal hearing amplifiers.

Finding the best solution at an affordable price

Untreated hearing loss can bring about cognitive decline, not to mention increasingly diminished ability to hear. Because amplifiers don’t differentiate between frequencies, if you raise the volume enough to hear what you’re missing, you’ll probably have it up too loud for other frequencies….and do additional damage. And who needs to do that?

Right now, the only recommended treatments for hearing loss, if it’s not a result of earwax, are some surgeries and hearing aids. Ignoring hearing loss and avoiding treatment doesn’t save you money ultimately. Neglected hearing loss has been shown to increase your general healthcare costs over 40%. The good news is, there are affordable options. We can help.

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References

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20373077