With Hearing Aids, Consumer Reports Are Personal

Because everyone’s hearing loss is different, you need different kinds of hearing aids. So the hearing aids your Mom has won’t necessarily work for you. You are most likely going deaf for different reasons with a different intensity than your Mom. So, without a set standard to compare one set of hearing aids to another, it’s impossible to fairy compare them. If you are looking for the edition on hearing aids, Consumer Reports can’t help you. You need to look elsewhere.

What?

I said, “You need to look elsewhere!”

What?

Oh, knock it off. Anyway, if you are trying to compare hearing aids, consumer reports are available online done by actual customers of various hearing aids, so the reports are unbiased. One good place to check out is the Beyond Hearing Listserv. You can find information on hearing aids, consumer reports and you from associations such as AARP and the Hearing Loss Association. Your doctor and your health insurance company may also have information. Ultimately, with hearing aids, consumer reports of others mean nothing except how a particular hearing aid works for you.

Before You Buy

Don’t just look at the advertisements for hearing aids. Consumer reports about any kind of company urge that when you are dealing with so much money, be sure that the hearing aid company exists! Sadly, there are fraudsters everywhere who have no feelings of guilt taking money from those in dire straits.

Also, you need to have your kind of hearing loss professionally diagnosed. You can’t avoid going to the doctor on this one. If you don’t and buy a hearing aid anyway, it could be like taking medicine for malaria when really all you have is the flu.

Don’t rule our ready made or over the counter hearing aids, consumer reports on the web and from investigative journalists report. Since the demand is getting higher for more reasonably priced hearing aids, some over the counter hearing aids can help dramatically. But again, before you buy one, check with your doctor and ask if you need a special kind of personalized hearing aid. Some people just need some amplification, while others cannot hear certain tones. For example, this writer is partially deaf in her left ear. I can hear vowel sounds without any trouble, but consonants are tricky. Because my right ear is still working, I haven’t needed to check out hearing aids, consumer reports or doctors’ opinions just yet.