Hearing Aids 101

Today you have your choice of almost invisible, comfortable, discreet and high fidelity hearing aids. There are a wide variety of hearing aid types and styles on the market. With the right hearing aid, your life could be transformed. With the wrong one, you could be left with frustration around why your hearing hasn’t improved.

Your options include the traditional behind-the-ear, receiver-in-the-ear, and receiver-in-the-canal types. There are even extended wear hearing aids you can leave in for months at a time, and hearing aids that wirelessly connect to your TV through your smartphone.

As you review the various hearing aid models, consider these important questions:

What features would be most useful to me?
What is the total cost of the hearing aid?
Does the warranty cover future maintenance and repairs?
How do I make adjustments to the settings?
How easy is it to replace the batteries?
How comfortable is it for me to insert and remove them?

Digital Hearing Aids: 21st Century Solutions

Digital hearing aids are not the hearing aids of your grandparents and have revolutionized hearing aid technology. If you only plan on using your hearing aids at home, the more basic digital units may suffice. On the other hand, if you want enhanced listening at home, in the car, at the supermarket, at a restaurant, at concerts, at the football games you attend, and everywhere else, then you’ll want a more full-featured advanced digital hearing aid.

The Price and Value of Hearing Aids

Cost and value are two different things. Take out a piece of paper, list how much of the day and week you could benefit from using hearing aids and the variety of situations where they would help you enjoy life more. Then calculate what it’d be worth to you, per day, to be part of the conversation. That’s the value.

What Determines the Cost of a Hearing Aid?

The cost of hearing aids is determined by their features and function. The more features you want and the higher level of performance you’d like, the more you’ll pay. Nearly invisible hearing aids that work well across a broad spectrum of listening environments are likely to be more costly (and work better) than cheaper models.

Just like any other technology, your hearing aid price depends on which features you choose and, more importantly, what your audiologist recommends is right for you. The more features you select, the more the hearing aids will cost.

Which Brands Are Best?

We’ve spent the last decade selecting the few hearing aid manufacturers that we know from experience are the cream of the crop. Why do we only carry the best? Because we want to help you truly get more out of life.