Hearing Aids

First, consider your symptoms. Are you noticing increasing hearing difficulty that is affecting your communication with others around you, leading to feelings of frustration, fatigue, embarrassment, and isolation? Oftentimes, your spouse or family are just as frustrated (if not more) and can help make this decision if you ask them.

Your hearing test can be an objective way to determine need. Typically, we do not hear all pitches with the same level of loudness. Due to the rising and sloping nature of hearing thresholds based on different pitches, your hearing loss may be deceptive because you can hear some voices and sounds better than others. For example, you might be able to hear men’s voices better than women’s/children’s voices. Even a mild hearing loss can affect your daily communication and be bothersome enough to seek help with hearing aids. Getting a hearing test is the first step to get help and At Concierge Audiology Las Vegas, we also administer a speech in noise test (QuickSIN) which can validate hearing difficulty in situations with background noise.

While you might be in an initial state of denial over a recent diagnosis, it is our job to make recommendations to ensure you can hear your best with the intention of minimizing a long term negative impact of hearing loss. 

There are a number of factors to consider when asking yourself if you could use new hearing aids. 

1. While regular service and maintenance by a hearing healthcare professional can help prolong the life of hearing aids, they are mini-computers subject to a harsh environment (heat, sweat, wax, dust) on a daily basis and so they typically have a limited lifespan to work optimally after several years (~3-5 years). Once you start sending them in for repairs, sometimes the cost and inconvenience of these repairs can add up.
2. Your hearing may have changed significantly enough to justify a stronger set of hearing aids. Hearing aids have different power levels to accommodate fitting ranges, and certain styles, selections or configurations can have limited ranges that even re-programming cannot accommodate.
3. We live in an age when technology is rapidly advancing based on cumulative research and development and embracing newer technology means improved sound quality and new features that make life more convenient than ever (rechargeability, bluetooth, telehealth, etc.).