Is Belltone a good brand of hearing aid? If not what is a good brand? How much s!


Question:

Is Belltone a good brand of hearing aid? If not what is a good brand? How much should a good hearing aid cost?

Additional Details

3 weeks ago
My grandmother, has 80% hearing loss, and is thinking of ordering a 17-channel hearing aid from Belltone. They said it was like $5900.

Is this ok?


Answers:

That seems like a lot for a single hearing aid. $5900 for two high end digital hearing aids is in the typical ballpark. Beltone as a company has been around a long time, so that means they are stable but have also had a number of complaints about them, and it appears that opinions about them vary quite widely depending on the dealer. One of the differences between Beltone and some other hearing aids is that Beltone has a nationwide network of "dealers". Most audiologists do not restrict themselves to a single brand and buy hearing aids straight from the manufacturer and resell them. Some of these more common brands would include Phonak, Oticon, GN/Resound, and Siemans. I have years of experience as a purchaser of the first two types of hearing aids both for myself and my daughter and have zero complaints, and have heard only good things about the level of quality for the other two brands as well.

The best hearing aid, however, is not a particular brand, but is ALWAYS is one that fits the patient's type of hearing loss. 80 % is not a good measurement of hearing loss, hearing loss is expressed in a number of decibels (usually zero to 100) across specific frequencies, with the "speech" frequencies between 500 and 4000 Hz being the most important. Different hearing aids are better for different levels of hearing loss. You also need to keep in mind that the quality of the person programming and dispensing the hearing aid is as important as the quality of the hearing aid. No point in paying for all of those bells and whistles if the person programming it a) doesn't know how to maximize their use or b) can't explain it to your mother or ask the right questions to optimize her fitting




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