The irreverend Reverend

A ministerial friend of mine, who lives some two hours drive away by car,  phoned me many years ago to ask me to test him for hearing aids. In the ear aids were by this time available and so were offered, but he insisted on a large behind the ear aids.

‘A strange decision’, I thought, but he would not be swayed!

After a two hour drive back to the office I was told that I had to phone him. ‘Surely he hasn’t decided against aids?’ I thought.

‘What colours do these aids come in?’ he queried.

‘What colour were you thinking off?’, I parried. ‘

What about bright crimson?’ he said. 

I almost told him that I thought he was being silly! However I retained my professional distance and he was successfully fitted with the aids (which he was to wear for many years).

However I was sufficiently courageous to ask him (having known him first over thirty years ago) why he wanted to have the gaudy aids.

‘Well, I have been trying to tell the Bishop for many years that I have a hearing loss. He’ll darned well have to believe me now!’

A case of inverse aesthetics being used to good effect!!

Aesthetic appeal?

It’s very interesting to note the visible changes in hearing aids over the last few decades. When I first started practising we fitted pocket aids, which were then followed by behind-the-ear aids (which by this time were almost as powerful).

As time went on we could fit very severe losses with in-the-ear aids, and even completely-in-the-canal aids. These not only were more aesthetically-appealing, but gave an improved sound as they were nearer the eardrum.

About five or six years ago we saw an amazing volte-face in that now we could offer aids which were called 0n-the-ear (OTE), as they sat behind the ear and led the sound through a tube to the ear. They were followed by the receiver-in-the-ear, where the loudspeaker is now in the canal of the ear.

They are certainly evident for all to see in their gaudy colours, so aesthetic appeal cannot feature highly in the mind of the wearer. The truth is that they give a very-natural sound, and this is proving more important than how they look.   GOOD!