We all enjoy a good bargain. But when it comes to your health, be careful what you purchase and pay attention to the small details.

We know, it’s confusing, the names are rather similar, but hearing aids and hearing amplifiers are not equivalent. And making the wrong choice could have significant implications for your hearing and your overall health.

What is a hearing amplifier?

A small device that goes inside of your ear, a hearing amplifier raises the volume of external sound. These are generally quite simple, one-dimensional devices which the government categorizes as personal sound amplification devices. A hearing amplifier is like turning the volume up on the world.

Because of their one-size-fits-all approach, hearing amplifiers aren’t recommended for people who have moderate to extensive hearing loss.

Hearing amplifier aren’t hearing aids

It starts to become pretty apparent that hearing aids aren’t the same as hearing amplification devices when you consider that amplifiers are not recommended for people with even moderate hearing loss. Hearing aids, obviously, are recommended for those who suffer from hearing loss.

Both kinds of devices are capable of raising the volume of external sound. The primary difference between the two devices is how cutting edge that amplification is.

• With hearing aids, only select wavelengths of sound are boosted. That’s because people often lose their hearing one frequency at a time. Either high-frequency sounds or low-frequency sounds typically vanish first. Hearing aids work to fill in the holes in your hearing rather than just making everything louder. For people who have hearing loss, this selective approach is more effective.
• Hearing aids can be calibrated for your environment. There are quite a few variables that will determine the specific acoustics of a space. These adjustments can even be made automatically with some modern hearing aids. A dedicated device or smartphone can tune hearing aids that don’t do it automatically. By making small adjustments to the settings of your hearing aid, you’re capable of hearing better in a wider variety of settings, meaning there will be fewer locations you want to avoid.
• Hearing aids are specifically manufactured to help you comprehend speech. Because communication is so central in our lives and also because of the irregular way hearing loss develops, this is an important function. Because of this, hearing aid makers have invested enormous resources into improving the clarity of speech above everything else. In order to make sure voices come through clearly even in a crowded room, state-of-the-art technology and algorithms are bundled inside of modern hearing aids.

Simply put, these features are vital components of correctly managing hearing loss. And these are features that are not present in most personal hearing amplifiers.

The best deal for your ears

Along with a decreased ability to hear, neglected hearing loss can also lead to mental decline. Because amplifiers don’t differentiate between frequencies, if you raise the volume enough to hear what you’re missing, you’ll likely have it up too loud for other frequencies….and damage your hearing further. And that’s not good for anybody.

Currently, the only recommended treatments for hearing loss, if it’s not a result of earwax, are some surgeries and hearing aids. Neglecting hearing loss and bypassing treatment doesn’t save you money ultimately. Neglected hearing loss has been demonstrated to increase your general healthcare costs over 40%. Luckily, there are affordable solutions. Just ask us.

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References

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20373077