Best Hearing Aids for Seniors

It would be an understatement to say that there are many hearing aid manufacturers out there. Companies from across the globe make these devices, and there are countless options for those shopping for items like this. Of course, though, like any type of tech product, not all hearing aids are made equal.

Choosing the right hearing aid for a senior, relative, or friend can be a difficult process. While devices like this can prove to change a person’s life for the better, they can also cause problems that make it hard to use them if you don’t pick the right option. To make this easier for you, we’re going to be exploring all of the considerations you need to make as you go through this process, making it much easier to pick the right hearing aid for the person you care about.

Simplicity without compromise

While it doesn’t apply to everyone in this bracket, many senior hearing loss patients want a hearing aid that they can turn on, put in and forget about. Having them with buttons, dials and other controls will make their hearing aid feel too complicated, but you also don’t want to limit the features they have access to. Balancing this out can take some work, but we’ve listed some common features below that can be chosen to make a hearing aid simpler:

• Rechargeable batteries and wireless charging: Having to fiddle with batteries every few days isn’t very user-friendly, especially when you’re dealing with button batteries that don’t make their polarity very clear. Rechargeable batteries and wireless charging take this issue out of the equation.
• Mobile apps: Smartphone apps use the same layouts and button formats as one another, presenting a UI that an elderly person will recognize and feel comfortable with. Hearing aids that use apps rather than physical controls can often be much easier to live with.
• Loop detection: Induction loops are used in places of business to improve the effectiveness of hearing aids. Older hearing aids have manual switches to enable this to work, but modern examples can switch to the right setting automatically. This can take a lot of the confusion out of devices like this.

Meeting their needs

Alongside providing something simple to senior hearing aid users, it also makes sense to think about what they spend their time on when choosing a device like this. For a person who likes to go out to local cafes and other businesses to talk to their friends, a fairly basic hearing aid will be fine and you won’t need to look for advanced features.

For things like listening to music, watching television, talking on the phone or just about any other activity that involves hearing, you’re probably going to need something a little more specialized. There is also the option of Bluetooth hearing aids, which have gained huge amounts of popularity over the last few years. Devices like this can connect to audio sources, playing it directly through the hearing aid, rather than relying on microphones to pick the sound up.

Devices like this should always be chosen based on the needs of a patient. Of course, things like cost and usability are also a factor, but people tend to have a long time to get used to the hearing aid they’re living with. This makes it easier than you might expect to get to grips with the features and settings they come with.

Cost and reliability

Finally, as the last area to consider, it’s time to think about cost and reliability. Many hearing aid users choose the cheapest option they can find, only to have issues down the line that make it cost a lot more than they originally expected. Choosing to go with a reputable company with a long track record of success with products like this will be an excellent way to ensure that your hearing aid will be reliable and cost-effective. Hearing aid repairs aren’t exactly cheap, making it well worth spending a little extra when you buy the device to avoid having to fix it down the line.

Here at Hinderliter Hearing Services, we’ve had the opportunity to work with hearing aids for a very long time. Our dedicated team of audiology experts is very well acquainted with this market, and we understand what can make or break the usability of hearing aids for a senior citizen. Give us a call at 248-430-8425 today and we’ll happily explore your options and offer our unique insight into the best hearing aid for you or the person you care about.