Buying hearing aids online can be confusing, and the process can spark many questions, such as: How will I know which hearing aid will work for me? Who will help me fit my hearing aid to my ear? What type of hearing device should I get?
Around 15% of American adults (37.5 million) have trouble hearing, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). In most cases, the best way to treat hearing loss is with hearing aids. While 28.8 million people with hearing loss could benefit from hearing aids, a much lower percentage have actually tried them.
It’s no secret that untreated hearing loss can have a negative impact on quality of life. This is the unfortunate truth for more than 33 million Americans. It is also a sad reality that a large portion of those 33+ million people leave their condition untreated for the simple reason that they cannot afford hearing aids.
According to the September 2015 PCAST report on the state of hearing technology, there are millions of Americans with hearing loss that do not buy hearing aids because they simply cannot afford them. This is bad news, and is truly an injustice to people who are simply hoping to hear better. Fortunately, there are options for those who have hearing loss and are on a tight budget.
For the generation of Americans over the age of 50, the general feeling regarding hearing aids has traditionally been associated with cost. Although technology has gotten better and quality has improved, most people still feel that hearing aids are way too expensive and in many cases unaffordable. In fact, many people over the years have chosen to not address their hearing loss due to the elevated price of hearing aids.
Many agree that hearing aids are expensive. In fact, high hearing aid costs are often what prevent hearing impaired individuals from seeking treatment. In the following, we’ll address if the price of a hearing aid truly reflects quality, as well as what to look for when purchasing hearing aids.
When we look through our monthly reports on what terms people Google to find us one of the most common phrases is, "What are the best hearing aid?". On the surface it may seem like a very simple question to answer. In reality the answer is much more complicated. In short, the best hearing aid is the one that matches your specific need and budget. If you go to an audiologist or hearing center they will test you and tell you the best hearing aid for you might be $3000 per ear.
In a recent paper published in The Hearing Review, there was a bombshell released. Author Sergei Kochkin, Ph.D. released a whole host of information regarding direct-mail hearing aids and traditionally bought (audiologist office) hearing aids and how their overall satisfaction rates. While the entire article warrants reading, the long and the short of it is that direct mail hearing aid satisfaction is almost indistinguishable between direct mail purchased and traditionally purchased aids.
You've probably seen advertisements for very low-priced personal sound amplification products (PSAPs) online or in your local pharmacy. However, we want to stress that there are differences between sound amplifiers and hearing aids, and those differences are important to your hearing health.
