Your Health Blog

Archive for the ‘Hearing Help’ Category

We’ve all seen the old tv shows or movies or sometimes see a comedy routine that showed a grandpa with a primitive hearing device to help him with his terrible hearing. In the routine, the senior citizen used a huge cone or funnel device that was about three times as big as his head which he would stick in his ear to amplify the sound. And if I remember right, it never worked very well.

I don’t know if that method of supplementing hearing was every popular but we have had conventional hearing aids around for a long time. In a way to a casual observer, the hearing aid seems to do the opposite of what it is supposed to do. That is because if you see someone wearing a hearing aid, the device blocks the opening to the ear. So it would seem that keeps the person from hearing well when the opposite is actually the truth.

A very basic hearing aid is actually a pretty uncomplicated device. You may want to think of it as a PA system in reverse. Instead of taking sound and amplifying it over a large space to many, it amplifies it into a very small space to just one person. But the base components of the hearing aid are a microphone, a battery and a small amplifying circuit that makes the sound louder and easier to understand and then transmits that sound back into your inner ear where it can be clearly recognized.

This somehat basic design served for a long time under the analog method of sound transmission. But the design has been adapted to a number of different ways that simple design if used for different kind of patients and to deal with different kinds of hearing loss. For example, in an earlier design, the entire device except for the amplification transmitter existed in a small box worn in the pocket with a wire connecting to a small earpiece. This hearing aid looked like a small transistor radio and allowed the box to be large enough for ease of access to change the battery.

With time, this basic design has been expanded, adapted and made smaller to fit behind the ear. Analog hearing aids are still around but now hearing aid patrons can also look into getting a digital hearing device which translates the sounds it picks up into a digital signal and then into the ear. The value here is that digitization has allowed hearing aids to get very small so many hearing aids can reside easily just inside the ear where they are not so conspicuous. In fact, in some cases, very small hearing aids can be implanted into the ear in such a way that nobody even knows it is there.

Greater control has been added to both analog and digital hearing aids so the wearer has the ability to adjust the quality of sound coming in as well as to filter out surface noise and deal with different frequencies differently depending on what the hearing need is. All of these have made hearing aids better and more adaptable to may user’s needs. You can only expect that medical technology will continue to enhance hearing aid technology even more in the future. Hearing aids in the future will be even smaller and work even better.

After finding out that you needed hearing aids, you may have thought, “I can’t afford them.” It is easy to lump hearing aids in with sophisticated medical equipment and to think that for you to own your own hearing aid might be out of reach for your budget. But you need to compare your hearing on the same level as your glasses or dentures.

Nobody would consider their glasses to be optional or an unnecessary expense. That is because there simply is no doubt that your sight is critical to your ability to do your job and take care of your responsibilities. Well, your hearing is just as important as your eye sight. And hearing aids are far more common in the general population than you might think The reason you may not see them as much as glasses is that technology has gone a long way to miniaturize hearing aids so they fit easily inside the ear and others just don’t know they are there.

The first thing you should do before you reject the idea of wearing a hearing aid is check with your health care provider. In many cases, at least some of the cost of hearing aids may be covered if you have a prescription from your audiologist for this. If your doctor considers a hearing aid to be necessary for your health and for you to live a healthy lifestyle, many times insurance will respect that judgment and kick in.

Few things compete with good old capitalism and competition for giving you options when it comes to finding an affordable alternative to the higher priced hearing aid retailers. And those market forces have been made even more intense, to your advantage, because of the internet. So before you decide that you have covered all bases when shopping for good hearing aid prices, don’t give up until you have scanned the internet for competitive options.

In many industries, internet retailers are able to give you deals that are far better than what you can get at the mall for the simple fact that internet retailers don’t have to sustain a lease or keep an inventory. But they can offer the same quality service and even offer good support and customer service as long as you don’t mind using that support via internet contacts rather than having a “brick and mortar” store to go to for your help in getting a hearing aid.

The key to knowing how to shop for affordable prices for your hearing aid is to not only know in detail what you need and what your prescription calls for but to know the brands and models that have a strong reputation for quality. Further, if you know what options you must have in a hearing aid, you can be particular when shopping and so keep retailers from selling you a high priced hearing aid that is more than you need. Learn to be a smart and informed shopper when you are calling the shots on what you buy. And that is always a formula for getting the best deals on finding affordable hearing aids.

One of the reasons a lot of people are reluctant to seek help with their hearing is confusion over finding the right kind of hearing aid and the bother of learning to get used to it. One solution that has helped many who really do not need an elaborate hearing solution is to go with a disposable unit that is inexpensive, easy to purchase and easy to replace.

To know what kind of disposable unit you will need for your hearing, you will still need a hearing test to determine the extent and cause of your hearing loss. This is always a good idea because if the cause of your hearing loss is something serious, you want to know about that. Since the majority of ones hearing loss is usually minor and the normal results of aging, the disposable route is a good one for you once you have determined how much help you need.

Similar prescription glasses, once you have your prescription, you should be able to buy a new disposable hearing device pretty much like you buy milk and eggs. That is one of the advantage is this approach because if the unit you are using fails, the batteries run down or you lose it, it is not a disaster. Your hearing aid virtually becomes a commodity item to be changed like a light bulb. It is just that easy.

If you get maximum use out of one purchase of a disposal hearing unit, you should be able to get as much as a month to a month and a half out of one unit. You might be tempted to buy your next one in advance but since you do not change the battery in a disposable unit, it might be best to wait until you are about a week out from when the one you have stops working. But if you have come to depend on the improved hearing you are getting from these convenient and affordable hearing aids, being prepared is a good idea.

Many times a disposable hearing aid is the perfect solution for older people or for anyone who wants to eliminate the fuss and cleaning associated with using a hearing device that you have to take care of. For one thing, because hearing aids are very small, buying, storing and changing the batteries is a huge inconvenience. People with poor hearing or arthritis have trouble swapping the batteries out and the cost of batteries alone almost justify just going with a replaceable hearing aid.

It can oftentimes be difficult to keep an old style hearing aid clean. By going the disposable route, when your hearing aid quits working or becomess soiled with earwax or other grime, you don’t have to clean it, just throw it out and buy a clean one. This is actually more sanitary too because if you want to use a clean unit when it comes to putting something in your ears every day.

As with everything disposable units are not for everyone. But they have become a huge success on the market because they are a great alternative for a big part of the hearing impaired population because they are convenient and affordable and they can do so much to improve your quality of life. I hope you enjoyed my disposable hearing aid article.