The most important thing to know is the credentials of the person who will potentially be testing and treating your hearing. There are many people selling hearing aids who are not doctors of audiology. Make sure the person you have treating your hearing loss is a doctor of audiology. The minimum education needed to be licensed to sell hearing aids in Arizona is a high school education. There is a BIG difference between a hearing aid salesman (aka. hearing instrument specialist) and an audiologist.  Hearing instrument specialists (credentials: HIS or BC-HIS) may tell you that they provide “professional” services, they may wear a ‘white coat’, and they may advertise using big words like FREE otoscopic examinations. Otoscopic examination in basic terms means to look in someone's ear (which is required by law before performing any hearing testing). Regardless of their claims for providing "professional services", the expertise and training of non-audiologists are technical at best… they are not medical clinicians and they simply do not have the academic credentials, professional certification, or license to identify themselves or act as doctors of audiology. Audiologists must earn a Doctor of Audiology (AuD) degree. This requires 4 years of undergraduate study and an additional 4 years of specialized academic work, including high-level training in the prevention, identification, assessment, and treatment of hearing disorders. Their extensive academic credentials, professional certification, and licensure allow Audiologists to provide a full range of professional services, from consultation and diagnosis to hearing aid fitting and programming, to post-fitting counseling and rehabilitation. Take away any of these services and you no longer have comprehensive hearing care. The Bottom Line: Hearing aid dispensers and audiologists are both licensed to fit and program hearing aids…but that is where the similarities end. There’s a vast difference in education and training requirements between Doctors of Audiology and hearing aid specialists.