Are hearing aids actually worth the cost? The cost is frequently a concern for people who deal with hearing loss. You wouldn’t pick homelessness above investing in a new house. The real value of hearing aids is about a lot more than the cost.
You really need to ask yourself what the consequences of not getting hearing aids will be and what the real value of getting hearing aids is.” If you decide not to buy hearing aids, there will be a monetary cost, as it turns out. Your decisions should also factor in these costs. Bear in mind some good reasons why getting hearing aids will save you money long term.
If You Decide to Purchase Less Expensive Hearing Aids, You Will End up Spending More
You will most likely find, while shopping for hearing aids, that you can find cheaper hearing aids that will appear to save you money. You could even purchase a hearing aid from the internet that cost less than a dinner.
You get what you pay for in quality when you buy cheap hearing devices. When you purchase these devices, you’re in reality buying an amplification device like earbuds, not a genuine hearing aid. All of the sounds around you, including ones you don’t want to hear, are cranked up.
Customized programming is the best function of a high-quality hearing aid, that you don’t have if you use a low-cost hearing device. If your hearing aids can be programmed to target your particular hearing needs, you will have a much higher quality experience.
The batteries in store bought hearing aids are also cheap. It gets very expensive when you have to keep replacing dead batteries. If you wear the amplification device regularly, you might possibly end up switching the battery up to a couple of times per day. The battery is very likely to fail when you need it most, also, so prepare to bring lots of extras around with you everywhere you go. If you’re continuously replacing dead batteries, are you actually saving money over time?
Better electronics allow the higher quality hearing aids to have a lot longer battery life. Many designs don’t even need to have their batteries replaced at all because they’re rechargeable.
Problems With Your Career
Choosing to not use hearing aids, or using cheap ones will be costly at work. A 2013 study published in The Hearing Journal says that individuals with hearing loss earn less money – as much as 25 percent less, and are more likely to be without a job.
Why? Communication is crucial 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 have to be able to listen to customers so that you can help them. You’ll probably 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 very difficult to succeed at work.
There will also be a physical toll from struggling to here on the job. You will find yourself physically exhausted from the energy spent trying to make out what people are saying and stressed about whether you heard them right. Some affects of stress:
- The quality of your sleep
- Your quality of life
- Your relationships
- Your immune system
All of these have the chance of affecting your work efficiency and decreasing your income as a result.
Needing to go to the ER more often
There are safety problems which come with loss of hearing. If you don’t have quality hearing aids, it will be hazardous for you to cross the street or operate a vehicle. If you can’t hear something, how can you avoid it? And you risk not hearing a public warning alert system like a smoke alarm or severe storm warning alert.
For jobs like a manufacturing factory or a construction site, you need to be capable of hearing in order for you and your coworkers to stay safe. That means that not wearing hearing aids is not only a safety hazard but also something that can restrict your career possibilities.
You also need to take into account financial safety. Did the waitress say that you owe 25 or 85 dollars? Do you really need all those new tv features that you failed to hear the salesperson discussing with you? You may wind up spending more than you need to for features you don’t really need.
Brain Health
One of the most crucial problems that come with hearing loss is the increased chance of dementia. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that every year people spend as much as 56,000 dollars treating Alzheimers disease.Dementia accounts for 11 billion dollars in Medicare costs annually.
Hearing loss is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and various other kinds of dementia. Someone who has ignored their hearing loss for a long time increases their risk of brain impairment by five fold. A modest hearing loss carries three times the possibility of getting dementia, and even a slight hearing problem doubles your chances. 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 examine all the worries that come with not getting one or buying a lower quality device, it’s undoubtedly a sound financial decision. Consult a hearing care professional to learn more about hearing aids.