Audiology is a science, so you want someone who knows that science inside-out ideally. Unfortunately it’s difficult to tell out there who’s a dispenser and who knows the stuff to the core. Linked In will rather helpfully tell you how long we’ve been going, but the rest is a minefield.
I can tell you how to tell a scientist from a salesman. Ask them “is this definitely going to be better *for me* than what I’ve already got?”
The true answer is we don’t know til we try it, til we have tweaked it, maybe til we’ve seen the results, refined the recommendation and tried something else. Scientists are hedgers by nature and by training.
Someone who says “yes madam for just £3,000 this will be a hundred percent better” is a salesman by nature and they are unlikely to spend time gathering your feedback and perfecting the fit.
I have been on the receiving end of this before and it’s highly unpleasant to find out you’ve wasted four years of your life not hearing as well as you could simply because someone couldn’t be bothered to think it through.
Now it may be that the results we get are genuinely the best that your individual budget, processing ability and hearing loss profile are capable of, but I do like to be sure.
I take on a limited number of patients each month to ensure that I have both free hours available for research and for my family, but also to ensure I am available for people who are going through hearing or tinnitus difficulties. Whether that’s the first time they come in or three years post purchase, I make myself available.
And I love a challenge, as several of my ‘challenging’ (now happy) patients will tell you. So if you’ve been made to feel a nuisance elsewhere I will welcome you. One patient has taken me 9 clinical hours to fit and I’m very much looking forward to writing up her (anonymised data) case study. Huge challenge, huge reward, lots of learning for me and light at the end of the tunnel for her.
So it really is Hearing Care The Way It Should Be.