Otoscopy (ear examination), Ear Wax Removal, and Hearing Checks
Serving patients throughout Caversham, Emmer Green and Reading
The wax in your ears is an amazing natural substance, designed to remove dead skin cells as they slough off from the eardrum. It also protects the skin in your ear canals from infection and foreign objects.
There are hairs in the ear canal that are designed to move in such a way as to push the wax out of your ears. If this mechanism stops working, then the wax can accumulate along with the dead skin cells and eventually block the ear canal. This is one of the things that can affect your hearing.
Using an olive oil spray, available everywhere, is an efficient way of lubricating and loosening the wax so that the hairs can start working again. If you are someone who is prone to a wax buildup, then the recommendation is to use an olive oil spray once a week as a preventative.
The exception to this is if you wear hearing aids, as these can block the natural flow of wax out of your ear. You need to take the advice of your audiologist as to the olive oil ear lubrication, as the oil may block your hearing aid.
Never push cotton buds or anything else deep into your ear, as this will compact the wax. The hairs cannot work, and you will get a blocked ear.
These are the services offered to adults over 18 years old by dentists and therapists at Prospect Street Dental Practice, who have been trained in wax removal by TYMPA.
A CHECK-UP (£39)
If you only want to have your ears looked at to assess if wax is a problem, then do book in for an otoscopy (a check-up). We will take photographs and tell you if you need to rebook for wax removal at a further cost of £75. The TYMPA system we use has been designed by, and is supported by, ENT Consultants, so we can send the photographs of anything abnormal to them for review and further advice.
WAX REMOVAL (£75)
If you KNOW that you have wax that needs to be removed, please book in for this. This includes otoscopy as above, but is a longer appointment to allow for the wax removal. We use a suction system rather than irrigation, and it is vital that you have softened the wax prior to your visit; *please do make sure that you have used an olive oil spray for at least two weeks before your appointment.*
If you do not do this, the wax/dead skin combination will be hard and will be stuck to the hairs in your ears. Not only will we be unlikely to remove all the wax, but the procedure is much more likely to be uncomfortable.
If two appointments are needed to remove the wax for any reason, there will probably be two charges.
HEARING TEST (£39)
This is the item that is heavily advertised as being free. It involves using headphones and tapping the screen on a machine when you hear a noise through them. It then produces a graph which shows which frequencies you hear well, and which you don't.
This is extremely useful if you were being tested for hearing aids, but hearing aids are a specialist service we do not offer; you would need to go and see an audiologist for this, who would want to do their own hearing test.