I dutifully called a local hearing-aid salesman and asked the price for the prescribed hearing aids. He said that they wouldn’t be good for me because they were the over-the-ear kind and would be visible to people. I insisted that I wanted a price for the specific aids that had been recommended. He then touted the merits of in-the-ear hearing aids and insisted that I get that kind. He said something like this, “Mr. Moore, if you to go to a cocktail party and want the whole subject of discussion to be your hearing aids, that’s up to you.” I then again asked for a price on the specified aids and he started again to preach about the in-the-hear aids. I hung up on him and learned my first lesson about some hearing-aid people: There are many good people in the hearing-aid business, but there are also a lot of hucksters. That particular huckster got a good earful from me before I hung up.

Because I had been a gunnery officer in WWII and believed that the loud noises so close to my ears must have affected my hearing, I went to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Providence to seek reimbursement. (We WWII guys were never told that we should use earplugs to protect our hearing.) The VA told me that, since I had not complained about my hearing while in the service, I was not eligible for help. It led me to the opinion that anyone in the service should complain about hundreds of hurts in case one or more of them spring up in later years.

When I bought my first hearing aids, I was in technical sales. A salesman needs to know not only what the customer said, but also what he really means. So if you can’t hear what he says, you’ll not know what he means. The first aids that I bought did a great job for me.

An unexpected result of my wearing hearing aids at work was that, within four months, another five of my fellow salesmen purchased hearing aids.

My aids helped me for about 20 years with occasional repairs. A funny discovery for me was that people who saw the aids immediately started talking louder, much to my pleasure. Even if one of the batteries was dead, all I had to do was turn so that the person could see the hearing aid, and he or she would talk louder.

A few years ago I had read about the great advances in the hearing-aid business. I went to a very reputable supplier, but I won’t name it here because of what you will read about later in this column. The audiologist tested me and told me that my left hearing aid was just fine for that ear, but that my right ear was so far gone that there was no way they could help me.

What a disappointment! One of the best ear-treatment places in the world told me that they could not do anything for my right ear. I wondered if the young audiologist, just one or two sticks of gum away from an empty pack, was competent, but experts had judged that she was.

So for the next few years I just wore the left hearing aid and, of course, had trouble hearing people, especially low-voiced women, a dangerous situation for any man.

Then, about a year ago, a friend with Meniere’s disease told me how his doctor had helped him and suggested I go to him. The man has a doctorate in audiology so I gave it a try. Thank God I did. I spent $3,400 for two hearing aids and a remote control, and it was a great investment. I can, for the first time in years, hear birds singing and low-voiced women speaking. An added attraction is that I can hear table conversations in a restaurant. All I have to do is click my remote control and it lowers the amplification of low-frequency sounds, which tend to be background sounds, and increases the magnification of high frequencies, which tend to be conversational level.

Now let’s talk about good hearing-aid people and hucksters. There are more than 40 hearing-aid manufacturers, which should tell you that it is a lucrative business, and therefore attracts both competent and incompetent people. I remember my mother years ago bought a hearing aid from a guy whose previous experience was running a neighborhood variety store and malt shop. She was never satisfied with the aid.

One of the many hearing-aid companies that heavily advertises has stores all over the United States. One of my friends paid $6,000 at such a store for two hearing aids that helped some but amplified every frequency, so restaurants for him were a horror show. Another person I met at the theater paid $4,000 somewhere else for one aid and wasn’t satisfied at all. Apparently the large company has the same number of satisfied customers as dissatisfied ones. The satisfied ones are at least hearing something, which they didn’t hear before, but did not know that up-to-date hearing aids have that added feature of helping restaurant hearing.

Salesmen of hearing aids vary, on the low end from guys like the malt-shop guy who sold one to my mother, to the cream of the crop, professionals with a doctor-of-audiology degree. That degree takes at least six years of study. I am sure that there are lots of honest hearing-aid salesmen, but my experience tells me that the safest choice is the man or woman with a doctorate in audiology. Gee, maybe all you need is to have the wax removed!

When you do buy hearing aids, remember that you can turn them back in if they are not satisfactory. I believe a six-month trial is common. Be cautious. Shop around. Also, if the aids aren’t satisfactory, turn them back in for full remittance while within the trial period. Then find a competent vendor.

Good luck! I hope you, too, will be able to hear the birds and the restaurant conversations.

http://www.townonline.com/marblehead/opinion/8998947278173503485