Are hearing aids actually worth the expense? The price is commonly a concern for people who have hearing loss. Still, when you invest in a house you never see the price and say, “well, being homeless is less costly”! The actual value of hearing aids is about much more than the price tag.
You really need to ask yourself what the cost of not getting hearing aids will be and what the actual value of getting hearing aids is.” As it turns out, there is a monetary cost for choosing not to buy hearing aids. You should factor these costs into your choice too. Understand why you will save money in the long run if you decide to get hearing aids.
If You Decide to Purchase Less Expensive Hearing Aids, You Will End up Spending More
While shopping the hearing aids market, you will undoubtedly come across cheaper devices which appear to be less costly. If you shop for hearing aids on the internet, you will most likely find some that cost less than a nice dinner.
You get what you pay for in quality with over-the-counter hearing devices. When you purchase these devices, you’re in reality buying an amplification device like earbuds, not an actual hearing aid. They just amplify the sound all around you, including unwanted noise.
Personalized programming is the best feature of a high-quality hearing aid, that you won’t get if you use a low-cost hearing device. You can attain an excellent sound by having a quality hearing aid tuned to target your particular hearing needs.
Over the counter hearing devices use cheap batteries also. Spending large amounts of extra money on batteries can be expensive. You could wind up switching out batteries a couple of times every day if you decide on a cheap amplification device. You’ll have to carry extra batteries around because they will normally die when you most need them. Do you actually save cash if you have to exchange dead batteries all of the time?
Higher quality hearing aids last much longer because they are made with more efficient electronics. Many even have rechargeable batteries, eliminating the need for repeated replacements.
Problems With Your Career
Deciding to not use hearing aids, or wearing cheap ones will be costly at work. A 2013 study published in The Hearing Journal says that less money is made by adults with hearing loss – up to 25 percent less, and often have a hard time keeping a job at all..
And why? There are lots of variables involved, but communication is important in pretty much every trade and that’s the major factor. You need to be capable of hearing what your supervisor says so that you can give good results. And in order to assist consumers or clients, you must poses good listening skills. You’ll most likely end up missing out on the whole content of the discussion if you are always struggling to hear what people are saying. Simply put, if you cannot take part in conversations, it’s really hard to excel at work.
The ordeal of trying to hear on the job will cause stress to you physically, also. You will find yourself physically worn down from the energy used trying to make out what people are saying and stressed out about whether you heard them correctly. Some affects of stress:
- Your quality of life
- Your ability to sleep
- Your immune system
- Your relationships
As a consequence, your income will decrease because of the impact on your work performance.
Needing to go to the Emergency Room more frequently
There are safety issues which come with hearing loss. It will be hazardous for you to operate a vehicle or cross the street if you don’t use quality hearing aids. If you can’t hear something, how can you avoid it? And you risk missing a public warning alert system including a smoke alarm or severe storm warning alert.
For numerous jobs, hearing is necessary for workplace safety such as construction sites or production factories. That means that not wearing hearing aids isn’t just a safety hazard but also something that can restrict your career possibilities.
You also should take into account financial security. Did you overpay the waitress for dinner because you couldn’t hear her? Do you really need all those new tv features that you failed to hear the salesperson discussing with you? Perhaps the less expensive style would be all you would need, but it is difficult to know if you can’t hear the clerk discuss the difference.
The Health of Your Brain
The increased risk of dementia is one of the most critical issues with hearing loss. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that each year people spend as much as 56,000 dollars treating Alzheimers disease.11 billion dollars annually is spent in medicare costs to treat dementia.
The risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is a risk factor associated with hearing loss. Somebody who has neglected their hearing loss for a long time raises their risk of brain impairment by five fold. The risk of getting dementia goes up by three times with moderate hearing loss and doubles with even mild hearing loss. Hearing aids mitigate these dangers.
Obviously, there is a price to purchasing hearing aids. If you examine the costs you will confront by choosing not to get hearing aids or getting cheaper ones, the choice is clear. Schedule an appointment with your hearing care professional today.