Who doesn’t love finding a good bargain? But when it has to do with your health, be careful what you purchase and keep your eye on the small details.
We know, it can be confusing, the names are rather similar, but hearing aids and hearing amplifiers are not equivalent. And your overall hearing and health could suffer serious repercussions if you make the wrong choice about this.
What is a hearing amplifier?
A little device that goes in your ear, a hearing amplifier raises the volume of outside sound. Technically categorized as personal sound amplification products by the government, these gadgets tend to be fairly basic and one-dimensional. The volume of the world is essentially cranked up.
These devices are usually not recommended 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 recognize that amplifiers are not recommended for people with even moderate hearing loss. Hearing aids, obviously, are encouraged for people with hearing loss.
Both kinds of devices can raise the volume of outside sound. But one of these devices has a much higher degree of amplification technology and sophistication.
- Hearing aids can be tuned to your environment. There are a number of factors that will determine 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. By making minute adjustments to the settings of your hearing aid, you’re capable of hearing better in a wider variety of environments, meaning there will be fewer places you want to avoid.
- Hearing aids are specifically 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. So this function has been prioritized by hearing aid manufacturers who have put considerable resources into improving it. In order to make certain voices come through clearly even in a noisy room, advanced technology and algorithms are bundled inside of modern hearing aids.
- Hearing aids are made to select and boost certain wavelengths of sound. That’s because people normally lose their hearing one wavelength at a time. Either high-frequency sounds or low-frequency sounds typically disappear first. Hearing aids work to fill in the holes in your hearing rather than just making everything louder. For individuals who have hearing loss, this selective approach is more effective.
Simply put, these capabilities are crucial components of effectively managing hearing loss. And these are features that are not present in the majority of personal hearing amplifiers.
The right deal for your ears
Along with a diminished ability to hear, neglected hearing loss can also result in cognitive decline. With amplifiers, you’re likely to do more damage to your hearing because the device doesn’t distinguish frequencies and will most likely turn everything up to unsafe levels. And that’s not good for anybody.
Currently, the only approved treatments for hearing loss, if it’s not a result of earwax, are certain surgeries and hearing aids. Neglecting hearing loss and avoiding treatment doesn’t save you money in the long run. Overall healthcare costs have been shown to increase by over 40% with neglected hearing loss. Fortunately, there are affordable solutions. We can help.
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References
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20373077