Hearing aids are virtually impossible to compare because your satisfaction is totally dependent on your hearing pathology, not the brand of hearing aid you choose. Therefore, it is important to reflect on how we generally make decisions.
THE SIX CRITERIA BY WHICH MOST OF US
DETERMINE WHETHER SOMETHING IS TRUE ARE:
- Consensus – A lot of what we call truth is assumed to be correct because of “consensus”. It is conventional wisdom when everyone knows “X” to be true.
- Consistency – this criteria is based on the assumption that if a fact fits with other facts regarded as true, it too, must be true.
- Authority – Can include a doctor, the audiologist, a company’s press release on hearing aids, a friend who is happy with his/her hearing aids. We seldom in any coherent way test the actual capability of an authority relying instead on the image of authority conferred by a title, diploma, the force of someone’s personality or an accreditation agency of some type.
- Revelation – For some, the truth is based on what is presumed to be mystical revelation. It cannot be questioned, it just is.
- Durability – Here the test of truth is based on age and durability. Has the truth stood the test of time? Here the truth is not a god, a book or a person, but the immense slice of time called “The Past.”
- Science – Is different from all the other truth-testing criteria. It is the only one that depends on rigorous testing.
In the hearing aid industry, no one can provide you with any scientific evidence that one brand of hearing aid is better for hearing loss than another brand of hearing aid. The success you will have with hearing aids is in direct relationship to how much damage is done to your organ of hearing, and not the brand of hearing aid you choose. No brand of hearing aid will provide you with 100% correction, no matter how much you spend on it.
The difference between an inexpensive digital hearing aid and a more expensive digital hearing aid is that with the more expensive one, you will hear clearer in more noise environments.
The only real difference in hearing aid brands is how they are marketed by manufacturers to hearing aid dispensers and by the hearing aid dispensers to consumers.
We are sure that when you know how to compare apples to apples, you will not want to trust your hearing health to anyone but VALUE HEARING CARE.
