Can you hear me?
Yes, and everything around you too!
Hearing devices are widely available and are a cheap alternative to hearing aids. However, they aren’t a substitute for a high-quality and individualized professional hearing aid. If you find yourself still struggling to hear certain sounds, despite wearing a device, read on.
Hearing Devices vs. Hearing Aids
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t understand the difference and may not even realize that there is a difference between these two devices.
Over-The-Counter Devices
The truth is that both devices amplify sound. However, a device that your purchase over-the-counter is simply a microphone and a speaker that comes with an adjustable volume. That’s it.
That means that when you turn up the volume to hear the things you are struggling to hear, you’re going to hear everything else more loudly as well.
The television, voices, a dishwasher, and even the toilet flushing are all amplified by a device uniformly.
If you wear one of these while performing tasks like hammering a nail or chopping veggies, you may be startled by the sudden booming that you hear. Loud or sharp noises are incredibly loud with a hearing device.
Hearing Aids
Hearing Aids, on the other hand, are tailored to your specific hearing loss. You have to take a hearing test to determine which sounds you struggle to hear and at what level. Those annoying beeps help an audiologist determine exactly where you need amplification and where you don’t.
A hearing aid has a microchip and can be adjusted to only amplify certain sound frequencies and controls how much amplification is needed. This means that everything will sound more natural.
It also means that when you flush a toilet for the first time, you won’t get the shock of your life when it roars in your ear.
With hearing aids, you hear only the noises that you need assistance hearing amplified.
Custom Comfort
Of course, hearing aids come with a higher price tag but there is a reason for that. Since hearing aids allow for more adjustment, you get a much clearer and more high-quality amplification. It’s less annoying and means that the wearer is more likely to wear their hearing aid than a standard one-size-fits-all device.
The technology for a hearing aid is where you come into a higher cost. The more adjustments that can be made and the more natural the sound, the more you will have to pay.
Think about it in terms of speakers for music. Do you get the same sound from a cheap generic speaker that you get from a high-end speaker? No, you don’t. The technology in those speakers makes the difference between feeling like you’re listening to your music through a tin can or hearing a musician perform live.
The same is true with hearing aids and devices. Hearing aids have higher-quality and greater variations in the sound it can produce and are much more natural.