Hearing aids last about 5-7 years or so. The ones I am replacing I think are about 8 years old or so (I can't remember exactly when I got them). Kids usually need them more often because they grow and their ears grow so they don't fit. Most kids I know have the behind the ear kind so they just get new ear molds done as needed. Our state has some programs to help kids that need hearing aids as well so if a child needs a hearing aid, between insurance and the state programs, you don't usually have to pay anything for a child.
This is why many older people do no wear hearing aides-it isn't vanity like they say, the simply can't afford them.
I didn't have cancer. My hearing loss is from unknown causes-I pretty much woke up one morning and couldn't hear-well I have some hearing. I didn't realize what had happened really until I went to the dr several months later thinking I had an ear infection though.
I was 29 years old when my hearing went. It happens.
For those that don't think it is "medically necessary", go buy some foam ear plugs and wear them for a day. Try to talk on the phone, listen to your children, go through your day without your hearing and then come back and tell me that it is a "quality of life" issue. Even with my hearing aids in I have no hearing in the upper registers so I can't hear a phone ring, a smoke alarm go off, my car's warning that I left my lights on, etc. I had to retire from my old job because I could no longer hear on the phone but it still wasn't enough to qualify for disability coverage because with hearing aids my loss wasn't "enough"-but nevermind that you can't use your hearing aids while on the phone or they squeal through the whole conversation
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I no longer watch tv because I can't understand what people are saying-yes, I can turn up the volume but then everything gets distorted because of how loud it is-never mind that you also turn up the background music which is a lot of why you can't understand the conversations in the first place.
Going out is just no fun either. Think of the loudest concert you have ever been to and how you can't hear the person next to you, that is how it is for someone that wears hearing aids anytime there is a crowd-like in a restaurant, etc.
But a wig is medically necessary because that wig will help you hear the ambulance coming down the road when you are driving
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