With hearing restored, 'You can't shut me up now'

It took more than 30 years, but Edwin Shaffer Jr. got used to life without sound.

Mr. Shaffer's two hearing aids were of little use, so he made his own adjustments. He taught himself to read lips, switched the television to always show the closed captioning and avoided many social settings. Whenever he would take long drives with his wife, Rosemarie, in the passenger seat, they wouldn't talk because he was unable to read her lips while driving.

All of this made Mr. Shaffer, 71, a viable candidate for cochlear implant surgery, which connects a tiny hearing device to the inner ear. He had the surgery in December at Anne...