While it may be true that older hearing aids are better than nothing, chances are what little advantage you get from them may be costly. Within the past few years, hearing aid technology has made significant progress. It’s gone to digital from analog, for one thing, and there are features today that weren’t even in the design phase 10 years ago.
If you’re considering upgrading your hearing aids, there are a few things you’ll need to do in order to choose the right ones for your needs. A hearing exam to ascertain how your hearing has changed will be necessary first. Your choices will begin to be narrowed down when we establish your current degree of hearing loss. Here are some reasons why it’s probably time for an upgrade.
Dependability of hearing aids
Older or even low-quality hearing aids have significant issues, such as that aggravating buzz you hear every once in a while. What about when you get near a phone and your hearing aids start to feedback? In some cases, there’s a shrill feedback sound that seems to happen out of nowhere, also. Newer designs compensate for common issues so that you hear feedback less often.
Volume isn’t enough
Volume control was about the only function of hearing aids a decade ago. Hearing aids have a lot more technology and functionality nowadays.
- Voice focus: Some hearing aids also provide voice focus, which helps the wearer to focus on the voices they want to hear. The sound of the desired voice is detected and amplified by directionally arranged microphones. Voice focus can be useful in loud settings or when the wearer is trying to hear someone who is talking softly.
- Bluetooth capability: Tvs, cellphones, and other enabled devices can now be synced to your hearing aid. Making phone calls or listening to music becomes easy with this.
- Background noise reduction: Feedback cancellation, noise filters, and directional microphones are a few of the many techniques used by modern hearing aids. Noise filters reduce unwanted sound while directional microphones are designed to focus on sound directly in front of you. When your hearing aid isn’t correctly fitted, a whistling sound can take place which will be prevented by feedback cancellation.
- Improved sound quality: Older hearing aid models had much lower quality of sound than modern-day models. Signal processing has become digital, which duplicates and amplifies sound in a more accurate way. Modern hearing aids also frequently offer custom programs that are preset for specific situations.
Frequent battery replacing
Price is always a factor in terms of upgrading your hearing aids. You may think that updating your hearing aid will be too expensive, but old outdated hearing aids can be costly too. Analog devices need new batteries a lot. If you are replacing the battery every day, or even more frequently than that, the cost adds up.
Out-dated hearing aids break down and need to go to the shop for repair more often. If you view your hearing aid as a 1992 Buick, you get the concept. The costs of the continual repairs can get quickly out of hand.
You’re not able to hear at work
Research has shown that hearing loss can lead to a lower income. Obviously, your career would benefit from wearing better hearing aids. You’ll have an easier time hearing what customers, coworkers, and your boss are saying to you. You won’t have to worry about whether you’ll miss significant information or guidelines.
Of course, stronger communication means an enhanced quality of life, also. You don’t have to sit by yourself during conversations anymore. Jump in and connect with the people around you.
You want a smaller hearing aid
When you look in the mirror at your outdated hearing aid, what comes to mind? Awkward? Obvious? OMG? Some of the most considerable advantages that come with updating old hearing aids are flexibility and style. A number of shapes, styles, and sizes are available in contemporary hearing aids. You could either get one in your favorite color and make a fashion statement or get one discrete enough that it will go unobserved by others.
It’s time to think about upgrading your hearing aids if you’re not happy with the results you’re getting from your old set. Technology has advanced significantly in the last several years, and there are now hearing aids available that can do things that were impossible in the past. Give us a call today to discuss your options.