Over the past few years, many people have chosen over-the-counter hearing aids rather than seeing an audiologist to address their hearing loss. This has happened for various reasons – and while it might seem like a good idea, in the end, the choice might not be the best for everyone. The truth is that hearing loss is a complicated condition that differs for each person. Hearing aids purchased over the counter are more of a one-size-fits-all solution, meaning they don’t address your specific hearing loss needs. Professionally fitted hearing aids, on the other hand, offer personalized fit and updates, along with the latest testing and support. These steps give you a much better outcome.
At Hearing Associates of Las Vegas, we understand that it might seem easier and more convenient to choose over-the-counter hearing aids. Still, we also know that it’s important to prioritize your hearing health to gain the best outcome. That’s why we make our services just as easy to access. Continue reading to learn about our services, the importance of working with a specialized hearing team, and how the brain and your hearing are connected.
Why OTC Hearing Aids Might Not Be a Good Choice – The Importance of Working With a Specialized Team
You might be reading this and thinking, of course, a specialized team would say they’re the best choice. However, looking at the facts, you’ll see more behind it than taking pride in what we do. At Hearing Associates of Las Vegas, we want you to have the best care possible, starting with an accurate diagnosis and a full understanding of your hearing needs. Some things you might not receive with OTC hearing aids are detailed below.
Lack of professional advice: When it comes to hearing health, it’s important to get advice from a professional. Audiologists and hearing experts are trained to accurately diagnose the type and level of hearing loss and find any underlying medical conditions that may need treatment. We can also offer ongoing help, counseling, and changes to ensure hearing aids work as well as possible. OTC devices don’t come with this kind of professional advice, which could lead to less-than-ideal results or even make hearing problems worse.
You might be missing key treatment needs: Self-diagnosing hearing loss and choosing over-the-counter devices without getting a professional opinion can be detrimental to your treatment. Hearing loss can be caused by many things, like age, exposure to loud noises, certain medical conditions, or even taking certain medicines. You may miss underlying health problems needing medical help without a proper evaluation. A skilled evaluation helps determine what’s happening and ensures you get the right treatment.
Quality and performance issues: Over-the-counter hearing aids may not have the advanced features and technologies that come with hearing aids that are properly fitted and designed to help with a wide range of hearing problems. While OTC hearing aids can help in the interim, customized options will benefit your hearing health more in the long run.
Lack of adjustment: Without help from a professional, you may be unable to set up the device properly, leading to poor amplification, discomfort, or even further hearing damage. Our team can fine-tune your hearing with an attention to detail that doesn’t come with OTC hearing aids. This makes your hearing aids more comfortable and increases your chances of wearing them consistently.
Better long-term benefits: Studies have shown that people who get their hearing aids properly fitted tend to be happier with them and have better hearing outcomes than those who use over-the-counter devices. Additionally, we ensure your hearing aids work well over time by giving full care and ongoing support.
Even though over-the-counter hearing aids may seem like a quick answer, the possible problems listed above show how important it is to get help from our team. We can offer you the best possible diagnosis, treatment, and hearing results so that you can enjoy spending time with family and friends again. It is important to emphasize comprehensive care and personalized solutions to manage hearing loss well and improve your quality of life.
Why Are Customized Hearing Aids a Better Option?
First, customized hearing aids counter the negatives listed above and provide an entire support team as you learn to process your hearing loss and become comfortable with your hearing aids. Second, hearing aids have changed a lot in recent years, making engaging with those around you easier and increasing your confidence in your hearing abilities. Because of new technology, better design, and more features, modern hearing aids are more efficient, less obvious, and easier to use than ever before.
Digital technology is one of the most noticeable changes in modern hearing aids. Digital signal processing makes it possible to use advanced sound processing, noise reduction, and amplification to meet your unique hearing needs. This technology also allows hearing aids to automatically adjust to different listening settings, making the sound clearer and more natural. In addition, some devices have directional microphones that help focus on the source of the sound. This reduces background noise and makes it easier to understand words in loud places.
You can also find devices that help manage tinnitus, which is a welcome blessing for many.
Additionally, many modern devices connect wirelessly to phones, tablets, and other audio devices to stream phone calls, music, and other sounds straight to your device. This lets you stay connected and interested in a wide range of situations. Also, the pain of changing batteries is negated as many modern hearing aids are charged much like your phone.
Modern hearing aids come in different styles, such as behind-the-ear (BTE), in-the-canal (ITC), and fully in-the-canal (CIC). These smaller designs make the devices less noticeable and more comfortable to wear.
As you can see, modern devices offered by our team provide you with better sound quality, usefulness, and control, thanks to advanced digital technology. And as technology improves, we can expect more improvements to hearing aids. Our team constantly learns and evolves as new information comes in, passing it on to our customers like you.
How Do the Brain and Hearing Work Together?
Even though over-the-counter hearing aids can make sounds louder, they often don’t help the brain process and understand sounds how it needs to hear well. Healthy hearing requires the brain, the auditory muscles, and the ears to work together. The ears pick up sound waves and turn them into electrical messages, which the auditory nerves then send to the brain. But the brain does much more than just send this initial message regarding sound.
When sound gets to the brain, it goes through complicated steps that help us understand and understand what we hear. This means figuring out where sounds are coming from, separating words from background noise, hearing different pitches and tones, and understanding language. These higher-level mental processes are vital to understanding words, music, and other sounds.
On the other hand, over-the-counter hearing aids tend to focus on making sounds louder and getting them to the ears. Even though this might make it easier to hear in some ways, it doesn’t change how the brain works to understand sounds. So, using over-the-counter hearing aids may still mean you have trouble distinguishing speech in noisy settings, following complicated conversations, or hearing small changes in sound.
Professionally fitted hearing aids make sounds louder and have advanced signal processing and customization choices to fit your hearing needs. By improving sound quality, cutting down on background noise, and making speech clearer, our hearing aid options help the brain understand sound better.
See Our Team About Your Hearing Aid Options Today
While over-the-counter hearing aids might provide a basic amount of amplification, they do not fully address the complex processing needs of the brain for good hearing. Our hearing aid devices offer a complete solution because they improve sound quality, reduce background noise, and make it easier to understand speech. This helps the brain understand sounds more correctly and quickly. Understanding and processing sound is a complicated task that requires a lot of interaction between the ears, the auditory nerves, and the brain. Good hearing aids should be designed to help with these kinds of complex mental tasks.
If you’re curious about our services and how we can help with your hearing health, contact our Hearing Associates of Las Vegas team today.
info@hearingassociateslv.com
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