Are hearing aids actually worth the cost? People who have hearing loss are commonly concerned with the price. You wouldn’t pick homelessness over investing in a new house. Cost is not the only value consideration when it comes to getting hearing aids.

When shopping for a big-ticket item like this you really need to ask yourself, “what do I get out of wearing hearing aids, and what’s the consequence of not having them?” As it turns out, there is a monetary cost for choosing not to buy hearing aids. Your decisions should also factor in these costs. Take into account a few good reasons why purchasing hearing aids will save you money long term.

If You Decide to Invest in Cheaper Hearing Aids, You Will End up Spending More

While shopping the hearing aids marketplace, you will undoubtedly come across cheaper devices which appear to be less expensive. You could even buy a hearing aid off of the internet that cost less than a dinner.

Regarding over the counter hearing aids, you get what you pay for. When you purchase these devices, you’re actually purchasing an amplification device similar to earbuds, not a genuine hearing aid. All of the sounds around you, including ones you don’t want to hear, are amplified.

Customized programming is the best function of a high-quality hearing aid, that you don’t have if you purchase a cheap hearing device. If your hearing aids can be programmed to address your specific hearing needs, you will have a much higher quality experience.

Store bought hearing devices also use cheap batteries. It becomes very expensive when you have to keep swapping out dead batteries. If you wear the amplification device regularly, you might possibly wind up changing the battery up to a couple of times every day. You’ll have to bring extra batteries around because they will normally die when you most need them. Do you actually save cash if you have to replace worn out batteries every day?

Better electronics allow the higher quality hearing aids to have a lot longer battery life. Many models don’t even need replacement batteries at all because they are rechargeable.

Problems With Your Career

Deciding to not use hearing aids, or wearing cheap ones will be costly at work. Research conducted in 2013 and published in The Hearing Journal says that less money is made by people with hearing loss – up to 25 percent less, and are more likely to be without a job.

Why? Communication is crucial in every field and with the many factors involved, that one is prevalent. If you’re going to give good results, you have to be able to hear what your employer is saying. And in order to help customers or clients, you need good listening skills. You’ll probably end up missing out on the whole content of the conversation if you are always trying to hear what people are saying. Simply put, if you cannot participate in discussions, it’s very hard to excel at work.

There will also be a physical toll from trying to here on the job. Even if you manage to get through a day with sub-par hearing, the anxiousness that happens if you worry about whether you heard something clearly and the energy required to make out as much as you can, will make you exhausted and stressed out. Here are some effects of stress:

• Your ability to sleep
• Your immune system
• Your quality of life
• Your relationships

All of these have the chance of impacting your work efficiency and bringing down your income as a result.

More Trips to The ER

There are safety issues that come with loss of hearing. It will be dangerous for you to drive a vehicle or cross the street if you don’t use quality hearing aids. If you’re unable to hear something, how can you steer clear of it? How about public warning systems like a tornado alert or smoke alarm?

For jobs like a manufacturing facility or a construction site, you have to be able to hear in order for you and your coworkers to be safe. That means that not using hearing aids is not only a safety hazard but also something which can restrict your career possibilities.

Financial safety is a factor here, also. Did you pay the waitress too much for dinner because you couldn’t hear her? Do you really require all those new television functions that you failed to hear the salesperson discussing with you? You may end up spending more than you need to for features you don’t actually need.

The Health of Your Brain

The increased risk of dementia is one of the most significant problems with hearing loss. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that Alzheimer’s disease costs people more than 56,000 dollars each year. 11 billion dollars every year is spent in medicare costs to treat dementia.

Hearing loss is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and a variety of other types of dementia. It is calculated that someone with serious, untreated hearing loss increases their risk of brain impairment by five fold. A moderate hearing loss carries three times the possibility of getting dementia, and even a slight hearing issue doubles your risk. Hearing aids mitigate these dangers.

Obviously, there is a cost to buying hearing aids. If you examine all the problems that come with going without one or buying a cheaper device, it’s obviously a sound financial choice. Consult a hearing care specialist to find out more about hearing aids.