Starting in mid-2022 and moving forward, you can buy real hearing aids without a prescription. Yay!
That means purchasing freedom, and the opportunity to save big bucks on hearing aids. We should know; freedom of choice and maximizing value for hearing aids are parts of the foundation of the Injoy business model!
If this is your first time wondering “how do I get a hearing aid?”, we’ve got advice from industry veterans, so that when you start on the road to improved hearing, you can navigate to a smarter, better solution.
Let’s start with the players in the game.
What is an audiologist?
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, an audiologist is a health care professional who can identify, assess, and help manage hearing disorders. Audiologists are required to earn a master’s degree in audiology from an accredited university.
They can also earn a doctorate in audiology (AuD) from an accredited institution.
Then they spend a year serving in a fellowship/externship, and have to pass boards for licensing and accreditation.
But wait, there’s more. After all of that, they have to enroll in continuing audiological education and earn credits to fulfill licensing requirements. There’s also certification from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and possibly other certifications and licensing.
To be a licensed audiologist and retain that licensing, the health care professional must learn and then keep on learning. The Injoy staff is made up of licensed audiologists, led by a doctor of audiology (AuD), providing telehearing/telehealth service that’s leading the field.
When should you visit an audiologist?
We have no problem with anyone visiting their own audiologist. We encourage it!
Hearing loss may be an issue on its own—or it could be the indication of a more troubling issue. A doctor of audiology may be a wise visit for you if any of the following crop up.
Tinnitus
Ever had a ringing in your ears? It’s that weird, sudden whine (or whir or scrape or clap) noise either in the background or drilling into your head up-front, in one or both ears. That’s tinnitus, and it affects 15% to 20% of us, most commonly in adults.
Tinnitus itself isn’t a disease. It’s the symptom of an issue with your auditory system, and that deserves a one-on-one inspection to ensure there’s not a different problem that needs addressing. Some of those problems could include:
- Heart disease
- Vascular disease
- Brain tumors
- Thyroid issues
- Hormonal imbalance
- Ménière’s disease
- And more.
There are two types of tinnitus:
Exogenous
Some people have an unfortunate condition where tinnitus happens when they encounter noise. If they enter a silent/nearly-silent environment, the tinnitus attenuates or stops. This is called exogenous tinnitus.
Endogenous
Sometimes tinnitus can occur without any external stimuli/noises. In essence, endogenous tinnitus is all in your brain. It might even be caused by recordable sounds happening in your head.
Tinnitus itself can be treated with the use of a hearing aid. However, it’s best to get the problem checked first if it’s consistent, or if it affects your ability to function.
Vertigo
When you’re feeling off balance, dizzy, like the world is spinning around you—that’s vertigo. Yeah, we remember spring break in college too. However, if the vertigo isn’t related to exuberant open-bar usage, it’s probably caused by an inner problem.
One of the causes for vertigo can be Ménière’s disease, which can also cause tinnitus.
Excessive Ear Wax
Your ears clean themselves. But like a roomba bought off Wish.com, that cleaning mechanism can go wonky. Earwax can build up when you use earbuds a lot, or clean in the canal with a q-tip. Even a recent irritation of the ear canal can cause swelling, which can block the ear wax from moving toward the outer ear.
This build up can cause hearing loss, and tinnitus. A visit with your audiologist can determine if you’ve got a waxy traffic jam in there, and can refer you to products and procedures to remedy the blockage.
Sudden Hearing Loss
As we age, the quality of our hearing changes. It’s just a fact of life. Changes in our hormones, in the shape of our ear structures, and the long-term effects of environmental noise factors over time can degrade our ability to hear clearly.
Aging often causes hair loss—including your inner ear hair cells, the ones that generate the nerve impulses which become your hearing. These hairs don’t grow back, so that loss impacts your hearing. This also happens over time.
Sudden hearing loss happens quickly, and can occur in one or both ears. There are several possible reasons for sudden hearing loss:
- Earwax buildup
- Eardrum perforation
- Damage to the ear structure
- Brain damage
- And more.
If you suffer from sudden hearing loss, please see an audiologist in person asap, and in lieu of that—your general healthcare provider.
Do You Have Hearing Loss?
With gradual hearing loss, you may not realize you’re suffering the loss. Some of the habits you learn to adapt to the loss become ingrained. Or, you just accept that “oh, that’s part of my age.”
The loss may be part of aging. Not doing anything about it, isn’t. If you’re wondering if you’re having hearing loss, see if any of the following seems familiar in your life.
Restaurants Are Too Loud
You go to a restaurant and you can’t hear or understand the person across the table or the waiter. Plosive consonants like T or B sound the same. Or words are blurring—did they say juice or choose?
The thing is, you’re not deaf or hard-of-hearing. The sounds are loud enough; the problem is that you can’t understand speech like you used to.
Hearing aids can be specifically tuned to help you define and understand what you’re hearing.
Echo Chambers
Most boardrooms aren’t exactly audio friendly. With all the hard surfaces, there can be quite a bit of echo. When you have a meeting in there with multiple people, you may find yourself losing most of the words in the echo.
That can be a real problem for your business, your clients, and your career future.
Hearing aids can cut the echo and amplify useful audio to help you stay on top of communication.
TV Volume
Do you find yourself watching TV alone? It’s not just because of the programs you like. It may be because you have to listen to the volume so loud it drives people from the room. Or, your partner/family keeps telling you to turn it down—and then you can’t hear it even if they all do.
Hearing aids can not only help you hear at “regular” volume levels, you could even feed bluetooth signals directly into them and not trouble others at all!
Connections Growing Shorter
You love hearing from the grandkids, but you have to ask them to repeat what they said on the phone or on Zoom/Facechat so often, they end up giving up on the call. Or you do. It’s just so hard to understand people, or get the volume you need to communicate.
Bluetooth compatible hearing aids can allow you two-way connectivity to your smartphone, smart tablet, and more. That conversation can happen through the hearing aids in both ears, so you won’t have to shout or repeat yourself, or ask it of others.
Related: Where do I get a hearing aid?
Free Hearing Loss Test
Here’s your starting point to understanding if you even need hearing aids: the Injoy free online hearing test. Just have some headphones or earbuds plugged in, because this doctor-designed test will play sounds and test your ability to hear them. It will check both ears together, and each ear separately.
If you don’t have headphones/earbuds handy, try our in-depth hearing loss questionnaire. Neither of these free Injoy services takes more than 10 or so minutes to complete. They’re great ways to understand if you’ve got the symptoms of hearing loss.
How To Get A Hearing Aid Online
Now that you’ve determined you have hearing loss, it’s time to find the right hearing aid!
Step 1: Schedule a consultation
Our licensed audiologists are passionate about our work, and want you to have the perfect, just-right-for-you customized hearing aid solutions.
Injoy offers 3 tiers of hearing aid functionality, so that you can find the best fit for your lifestyle.
Step 2: Cruise the Lot
Time to look at our receiver in canal (RIC) hearing aids! During the consultation you’ll get great advice on which tier we think works best for your situation.
However, you are always in the driver’s seat. Look at our products, pick the tier that best fits your needs, and place your order. BTW—our prices are half the price of brick and mortar (or lower!).
Step 3: FAST Shipping
It only takes 2 to 3 days for your hearing aids to arrive at your doorstep. And shipping is free, because we don’t like hidden fees.
Step 4: Setup Call
Through our Injoy app on your phone, an Injoy licensed audiologist will meet with you in the comfort of wherever you are, and we’ll make sure your hearing aids are set up perfectly for you.
Injoy is here for you, and with you, for your entire better hearing journey. We got you, boo.
Step 5: The Real Risk-Free 30 Day Trial Period
Put your hearing aid through the paces! Try them out in every listening environment you can think of—cheering teams, concerts, busy meetings, your kid’s high school band concert, even in the quiet of a nice evening on the porch. Well hello again, crickets. Nice to hear you.
You’ve got 30 days to love your Injoy hearing aids. And if you don’t, send them back to us and that’s it. No worries about refunds, no “checks in the mail,” no long wait for your money to come back to you.
This is why we call it a real risk-free 30 day trial period. We don’t charge you at all for the hearing aids unless you’re satisfied.
Other hearing aid companies charge your first. We prefer to trust you first.
Tiers for Your Ears
How do you get a hearing aid when you’ve got awesome choices? You hone it down by the functionality.
The tiers each build on the previous one, but all have bluetooth capability, rechargeable batteries, and more! Here’s a breakdown of your choices:
The Workhorse
Our value-priced starting tier 1 comes packed with features, including.
- Hands-free bluetooth phone connectivity in stereo.
- Smartphone app to adjust listening modes/levels/settings immediately.
- Tinnitus Balance to help with that ringing.
- AutoSense 4.0 AI programming to help you always have the best hearing experience.
- Multiple mics and programs help you hear better in every situation.
- WhistleBlock ensures no feedback whines when you “crank them up.”
- Rechargeable batteries and easy, discreet charging dock.
- Injoy Audiologist assistance without need for an appointment or a drive to an office.
- And more!
The Choice
Tier 2 adds:
- Adaptive Digital 2.0 advanced computer chip tech to handle the extra features.
- Ultra Zoom ability to focus on the sound of conversations directly in front of you.
- WindBlock to greatly lower/remove wind noise.
- Precise Speech Detection from Any Direction
- And more!
The Security
Tier 3 hearing aids combine all the features and benefits of tier 1 and tier 2, and then add:
- Waterproof ability up to .5 meters!
- Sweatproof ability that stands up to corrosion from powerful perspiration.
How do you get a hearing aid asap?
It’s easy: contact us!
We can work with your prescription if you have one. If you don’t, that’s no problem either! We can take the results of your free online hearing test and talk over them with you.
Or licensed audiologists will help you make sure you’re getting the right functionality. And we’ll give you 30 days to try them out without being charged a dime.
Yeah, we’re confident in the quality and value of Injoy hearing aids. After you experience them, we think you will be too.
Shop now, and in 2 to 3 days hear the world in a whole new way.
Listen. Hear. Live! Injoy.
