WE GET to do all kinds of reviews as journalists, but this was a first for me and I think for many of my colleagues.
When I first approached Specsavers to ask about reviewing their audio services, specifically ear cleaning, I wasn’t expecting a yes.
But Oliver Atherton, from the company’s Cheshire Oaks store between Ellesmere Port and Chester, gave the thumbs up and it was on.
Oliver, from Warrington, has been at Specsavers for nine years, with three of them in audiology and has spent the last year qualified in ear wax removal.
Costing £55 for a full hearing test and removal or £20 if there’s no wax, it’s an incredible service and has taught me – ear wax is good!
He met me at the store and immediately put me at ease as I would have to be honest and say there was some flashbacks to my childhood.
I was a regular to the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic from five to 15 with multiple operations for grommets after years of glue ear.
But equally, I was comforted by being so familiar with everything, including the hearing test in the booth and being examined.
Before we started, Oliver explained that Specsavers has used microsuction to remove ear wax for around five years, replacing irrigation.
Oliver set to checking my ears, identifying some wax in my left ear and not much on my right ear, but can see where I had perforated my ear drum, probably on more than one occasion.
He tells me that the ear drum reflects light and when it’s scarred like mine, it’s dull.
First is a hearing test and it is good for a man of my age and previous hearing loss and operations – he even showed me the graph to back it up.
You are in the booth with the headphones on and listening intently for the bursts of sound.
Luckily, I don’t need hearing aids but finding out I can listen to music through them has made them more appealing in future years.
Risks were fully explained to me and signed for so anyone taking up the service is in full possession of the facts and was expertly done by Oliver.
He explained that wax is something the body, if working properly, automatically dispels every day and how it is created can be down to your physiology, and also your working environment.
Ear wax is good – it stops unwanted things, like insects, from heading inside your ear drum but you just don’t want too much and don’t use cotton buds.
“You’re only creating more damage,” he tells me, directly after I told them I use them.
Oliver recognises that it’s down to the person as to whether they want to use this £55 service.
But even the £20 service is enough for anyone left disappointed that they haven’t had so much pulled out as it’s keeping your ears healthy.
There’s a reason we have ear wax and it’s because it keeps things out of our ears that shouldn’t be there.
Overall, this a hugely pleasant experience, down mainly to the skills of Oliver who knows exactly what he is doing.
He days that this level of service is standard across all Specsavers in the UK.
For more, head to www.specsavers.co.uk/book/location?hearing=true
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