What Influences The Price Of Hearing Aids?

All hearing aids have the same basic purpose: they improve your hearing experience so that you can hopefully hear the sounds you could before. All hearing aids have the same essential components comprising three main parts: a microphone, an amplifier, and a speaker. The microphone receives the sounds, converts them into electrical signals and sends them to the amplifier, increasing the sounds' strength. Once amplified, the speaker sends the improved sounds into your ear/s. 

The primary goal of a hearing aid is to allow the hearing aid user to access those "lost" sounds, implying that most basic hearing aids can amplify sounds. However, despite all devices having a similar makeup, not all ears and hearing losses are the same, meaning that the hearing aid needs sufficient power to distinguish between the sounds to be amplified to the correct frequencies according to the user's specific needs.  

The price of hearing technology should, however, not add unnecessary stress. The cost of one, and in some cases two, hearing aids can set you back financially. Make hearing aids affordable and accessible is at the core what Go Hearing believes because you shouldn’t have to break the bank to experience better hearing. 

This article will help you understand why hearing aid prices vary, how cheap and more expensive hearing aids differ, and guide you in picking something that will best suit your needs and your lifestyle.

Factors influencing the price of a hearing aid

Apart from the basic hearing aid features and functionalities, other factors also influence price, such as:

The type and severity of hearing loss

The type, laterality, and severity of hearing loss are critical factors in selecting the right hearing aid. A hearing health professional can discuss the various options with you. Go Hearing’s devices are over-the-counter hearing aids that are designed to assist with mild to moderate hearing loss, so you can take the free online hearing screener to determine if an audiologist is right for you.

Three aspects of hearing loss that affect the choice of the most suitable hearing aid are the type of hearing loss, laterality, and severity. Firstly, you may have sensorineural or conductive hearing loss, influencing how your hearing impairment needs to be managed. Secondly, laterality means that only one ear is affected, requiring only one device. Whatever the case may be, it's recommended to buy two hearing aids, as that would improve your sound-locating abilities. Lastly, the degree or severity of your hearing loss; some hearing aids are designed to help people with mild to moderate hearing loss, while other aids are designed with additional power to support people with severe hearing loss. Hearing aids with a larger "power" capacity tend to be more expensive than hearing aids for individuals with milder hearing loss.

Your lifestyle and hearing expectations

Your everyday lifestyle plays a vital role in the kind of technology you would prefer. For instance, if you're a bookworm and prefer one-on-one social settings, you wouldn't necessarily need advanced features, such as automated directional microphones or advanced noise-cancelling features. You may need a mere improvement of the natural sound quality or clarity of conversational speech in quiet settings. 

On the contrary, you might find yourself constantly juggling business calls and socializing at business events if you're a businessperson. In such circumstances, noise-cancelling features will be critical to operating in noisy environments, while access to Bluetooth Technology for business calls could be handy. You may even prefer having rechargeable batteries if your lifestyle requires regular travelling or high pace functioning when you don't have time to check your hearing aid batteries regularly.

Hearing aid size and aesthetics

Unlike reading glasses, many people are self-conscious about wearing their hearing aids. To improve the look, hearing aids usually come in different colours, shapes, and sizes or are customized to your liking, which affects pricing. Making hearing aids as invisible as possible plays a substantial role in deciding which option to choose. The variety of colours of hearing aid casings enables you to select a hearing aid that matches either your discrete or your outgoing personality while embracing your hearing loss. 

Options such as 'slim tubes', 'in-the-canal' (ITC), and 'completely-in-the-canal' (CIC) devices are rather unnoticeable, but one should also consider one's dexterity and fine motor abilities when selecting a device. If you are struggling with the ability to hold or manage small items with your fingers, you should consider a behind-the-ear (BTE) device.

Is the price a consideration?

Affordability means that improved hearing is within the reach of everyone. The choice of a hearing aid is affected by the various aspects discussed above, but pricing may be the deciding factor. Usually, an entry-level, affordable hearing aid has a limited range of features and programmes, but technological development has resulted in the delivery of more affordable hearing aids.

Why choose Go Hearing?

The good news is that Go Hearing aids offer discreet, in-the-ear hearing aids that are designed to assist with mild to moderate hearing loss. We believe that the ability to effortlessly experience the world around you should not be hidden behind a pay-wall.

Go Hearing devices have also been designed with active lifestyles in mind, because your hearing aid should suit your lifestyle, rather than you adjusting your lifestyle to your hearing aid.