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August 5, 2008
There's no need to suffer in silence
If your hearing isn't as good as it used to be, you may be thinking about getting a hearing aid.
Then again, there's a good chance you can't be bothered, even though you find yourself cranking up the volume on the TV set or asking a friend sitting next to you to speak up. If so, you are not alone.
More often than not, people put off getting a hearing aid after they first notice it's getting harder to hear, said East Bay, Calif., audiologist Leigh Kjeldsen. ''People wait an average of seven years between knowing they have a problem with hearing and doing something about it.''
Why the wait?
''People don't know about the process and don't know where to begin,'' said Kjeldsen, owner of Valley Audiology, which has offices in Concord, Calif., and Walnut Creek, Calif.
The first step is to get your hearing tested by a hearing professional. That's followed by more evaluations to help the patient determine what type of hearing aid would best fit his or her hearing needs. Once a hearing aid is selected, there is a fitting, which involves adjusting the hearing aid to best meet the patient's hearing needs. Often, patients come back for further adjustments after the initial fitting.
While a hearing aid can indeed improve your life by improving your ability to hear, they are not cheap. The cost of a quality analog hearing aid can go from $900 to $1200 while a digital aid can range from $1,300 to $3,000, according to the Mayo Clinic Web site. And that's just for one.
''Some people need one, some people need two,'' depending on their hearing needs, Kjeldsen said.
Digital adjustments
Digital hearing aids, which are programmed by a computer, allow for more flexibility and fine-tuning of the hearing aid so that it can be adjusted to hearing fluctuations of the user as well as different hearing environments.
''Hearing aids nowadays, I like to think of them as
miniature computers. They are programmed for each individual's hearing loss. . . . It's not one size fits all. . . . Once the hearing aid is programmed, it can be reprogrammed,'' Green said.
Today, requests for analog hearing aids are rare, Kjeldsen said.
''Just about all the hearing aids sold these days are digital,'' she said. ''I would say in the last five years there have been incredible advances in what a (digital) hearing aid can do.''
Hearing aids cover a wide range when it comes to prices.
''People need to know there is a very wide range of cost per hearing aid and that all depends on the level of technology,'' said Robert Green, an audiologist at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. Smaller, less visible hearing aids tend to cost more than larger ones, he said.
http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/26271084.html
Posted by 4HL on August 5, 2008 3:35 AM
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