Just a heads-up, this article is purely my personal experience (mine and my mom's!) with buying a hearing aid. It's not sponsored or an ad, so no misunderstandings, please. If I ever do get paid to promote something, I promise I'll totally upfront about it. Maybe in about five years? Haha.
Why I Ended Up Buying a Hearing Aid
This happened when I came back to Korea after giving up (!!) on my studies abroad after five years. I mean, I did visit Korea for about a month in between, but even with that, it had been three years since I was last home. The first thing that really hit me after I got back was how much my mom had aged. It wasn't just wrinkles or anything visual like that; it was more about her functions—her eyes, ears, jaw, even her voice seemed to have declined a lot. (My heart broke...)
She couldn't hear the doorbell ring, and no matter what I said, she'd never understand it right away, always saying "Huh?" or "What?" It had become almost a habit. We went to an ENT, and after a hearing test, it looked like she had age-related hearing loss.
Oh right, at first, we went to the ENT not so much for the hearing loss itself, but more because of her tinnitus. She kept saying she heard cicada sounds all day long. That's when we found out about her high-frequency hearing loss. If you have high-frequency hearing loss, you can still hear vowels pretty well because they're mostly low-frequency, but you have trouble distinguishing consonants. Instead of hearing things clearly and sharply, it sounds mumbled. That's why older folks turn up the TV volume so much—they just can't hear it cleanly. Consonants are produced by friction with your tongue, teeth, and lips, happening at high frequencies, you know?
But with both tinnitus and dementia (my mom doesn't have dementia yet, thankfully), if you can't hear, it tends to get worse. One of the mechanisms behind tinnitus is that when there's a sound you can't hear due to hearing loss, if your auditory cells don't react, the pathway connecting your brain and those cells reacts excessively, creating sounds that aren't actually there. So, using assistive devices like hearing aids to "hear as well as possible and communicate well with the world" is a super obvious way to keep your ears from getting worse, avoid social withdrawal, and maintain better mental health.
My mom kept saying, "At my age, why would I need a hearing aid already...?" but wearing one wasn't really an option anymore. Of course, she had to use one, but the real question was where to get it and what brand to choose. So, back then, I really dove deep into researching hearing aids.
Why Are Hearing Aids So Expensive?
But man, hearing aids are super expensive, aren't they? Some are ridiculously pricey. The doctor knew this, so he mentioned it upfront: "If a hearing aid is 1.5 million won, you're getting a good one." He was talking about the price for both ears. Many hearing aid stores often promote them like, "4 million won for one ear, but you get both for 4 million won with a 50% discount." But here's the thing: about a 50% discount is available at pretty much every store. Anything beyond that, like 70% off, is up to the individual store's discretion, so you just need to find a cheaper store. You know that the store and the manufacturer are different, right?
I personally visited and consulted with two places. I don't want to leave a bad review because it might harm the business, so I won't mention the brand, but the first place I went to just immediately showed me their most expensive model. And I only went there because someone I knew recommended it! I didn't feel any real sincerity, so I did some more research and found another place.
Why are hearing aids so expensive? Is it because they use the latest technology? What do you think?
Honestly, cell phones use far more advanced technology than hearing aids. A hearing aid is basically just a device that amplifies the sound coming through a microphone. That's actually a super basic technology that's fundamental to all speakers. Nowadays, sure, hearing aids have features like Bluetooth and AI, and you can control them with an app, plus they've been miniaturized a lot so they're less noticeable. So there is some technology involved. But even with all that, hearing aids aren't really using significantly more cutting-edge tech than cell phones. The real reason they're so expensive is because not many people use them.
The number of people with hearing loss severe enough to need a hearing aid is tiny compared to cell phone users—you could even say they're a very small minority. If not many people are buying them and the prices are cheap, then neither the manufacturer nor the seller would make any profit, right? So, they're kind of forced to sell them at high prices to the few people who do buy them—it's just the nature of the system itself.
But when I hear stories from my mom's friends, sometimes they spend a lot of money on a hearing aid only to find it too uncomfortable, so they use it a few times and then just leave it collecting dust.
This is part of a series I'm writing. I'll be writing a few more parts, sharing a lot more about the inconveniences you might experience using hearing aids, brand comparisons, how to choose a hearing aid you'll actually use, my personal recommendations, and more.