Hearing

[PerkyOchrePeer]

I've been finding I can't hear properly so I went to the doctor and they said it was wax. I have had the Works removed and a hearing test and they said I've got significant hearing loss and suggested I get hearing aids. I I think I might have carttarh because I keep coughing up this stuff from my throat so I've got a doctor's appointment next week to discuss it further because the opticians where I got the Works removed don't deal with anything other than wax

If you have significant hearing loss, go to your Dr's for a referral to the NHS Audiology Department, where you'll get free hearing aids.

I see you've already got an appointment to deal with catarrh, so discuss this at the same time.
Don't see why you went to the Opticians to have wax removed?

Who did the hearing test?

I went to the opticians to see an audiologist to get the wax removed because when I went to the doctor they said it was wax and it needed to be removed. Doctors no longer remove wax because they used to syringe method and it is now considered dangerous so you have to go to an audiologist at the opticians where they suck out the wax. You have to remove the wax before you can test the hearing so that's why I went

Opticians often have an audiologist in store now as well, eyes and ears go well together as a business model. Unusual that they would only deal with wax, how did they suggest you need hearing aids if they only deal with wax?

NHS provision varies across the UK. If you’re in an AQP area you might be able to self refer to Specsavers and still get an NHS hearing aid, but otherwise your GP would need to refer you to Audiology in the hospital, and waiting lists vary. With me, it’s 18 months.

A full hearing test will highlight if the loss is caused by fluid/catarrh blockage or if it is a sensorineural (permanent) hearing loss. Either ask for a referral or book yourself into Boots or Specsavers who offer free hearing tests.

It is common knowledge that in this day and age you get wax removed from an audiologist not a doctor and you can only find an audiologist at an opticians

When the audiologist said I had hearing loss she said you can get a hearing aid from me and it would be 3000 pounds or go to your doctor and get one free on the NHS. Who on earth would pay three grand for hearing aid from a private audiologist. I am not hard up but I am not wealthy so I'm not paying it and I'll get one from the NHS

I had the wax removed and then was given a hearing test and that's how they discovered the hearing loss and I had to listen to headphones to different noises and indicate if I could hear different noises going from low medium to high pitch and the result was recorded on the computer on a graph and there were a series of triangles below the graph line and I was told that because to triangles were quite low below the line indicated significant hearing loss because if I didn't have significant hearing loss to triangles would be further towards the line or touching the line

I don't know how old you are but I went to specsavers to get my ears suctioned and they referred back to my GP cos they thought my ear drum looked bad. I then waited to see ENT who did a hearing test and I've got some hearing loss but I assume cos I'm 33 they need to investigate it more so I had a CT scan.

I'm unsure what your actual question is OP and have no idea what 'The Works are/is that removed the wax???' Is is the name of a local company to you?

I'm not a specialist in audiology, but my understanding is that going privately, you 'might' have a choice of more discrete and better hearing aids than on the NHS.

So to explain further: a hearing test on a graph looks like a series of Xs for left ear and Os for right ear, you should see a red and a blue line plotted. That’s your air conduction hearing (what you hear through the headphones). You should then see some triangles (the bone conduction) and these should be very close or equal to the air conduction results. If there is a big gap between these two results then you have a conductive hearing loss which needs a medical opinion from your GP or ENT for further treatment.

I’m a private audiologist and people can and do pay 3000 and more for hearing aids. All hearing aids are not equal in their performance in challenging listening environments, and you are also paying for ongoing personal aftercare in that price, which is often (but not always) lacking in the NHS. The NHS is a one size fits all thing, everyone gets the same hearing aid..which is like fitting everyone with a size 6 shoe. Some people will get decent benefit but an awful lot of people don’t.

I've worked in both NHS and private Audiology and there is a significant difference in both continuity of care and product choice, but I would always tell people that I’d rather they went to the NHS than did nothing due to the cost privately. Any hearing aid is better than no hearing aid 🙂

@DamnitCarol I've never really understood my type of hearing loss but believe it's conductive, which they (Hospital Audiologist) state could have been from a fall as it's similar in both ears. They also said I must have lost my hearing between the ages of 4-8 as I can talk clearly.
I'm ashamed to say that I'm late 50's and have never really understood it all.
Sorry to hijack the thread!

My right ear has slight ringing noise. It gets worse after i listen to any noise or speak to someone on the phone and then it dies down. I feel that's the audiologist did not really want to discuss anything further with me after the hearing test and just dismissed me as that was the end of the appointment but if you go to your doctor they will take the time and trouble to sit and talk with you for as long as 0.takes and answer any queries that you have and give you a full overview but I didn't get that with this person. Also she said my ear canals were very scarred and she wondered if I had surgery on my ears as a child and I said no but I did have a glue ear when I was in my twenties which did clear up and she said that could be the cause of your hearing loss and why the ears looked scarred. I told the audiologist I can hear most things like my doorbell ringing the phone ringing but if people are speaking to softly that's when I have the issue and I can also hear announcements on the train when you're going from Station to Station and when I'm on the bus and the audiologist said these announcements are quite loud that's why you can hear them anyway I don't know really where to go I'm going to my doctor for starters

I was supposed to be going out earlier but I was so upset about my ear situation that I just didn't bother to go out and stayed at home

Not really. My GP stoped ear stringing, then reinstated it. I’ve also had suction removal done on the NHS at the audiology clinic (as syringing didn’t work completely). My Nan also very recently had syringing done. It very much depends on area it seems so it’s not “common knowledge”.

@PerkyOchrePeer I’m sorry but your doctor most likely wont have any sort of in depth knowledge of the ears, won’t be able to explain your hearing test, and will definitely not let you sit and chat about it for as long as you need!

Did you go to an independent optician or a chain? Was the Audiologist working for a hearing company or not? When someone comes to me for an assessment I will actually let them try hearing aids programmed to their hearing loss as part of the consultation, so they can hear the difference. Your ear drums are what are scarred, not the ear canal, which is quite common if you had glue ear or infections in the past.

Different areas have different contracts, some nhs provision is contracted out to Specsavers or Boots , others are run by healthcare providers in-house, not necessarily nhs itself. Op, you need gp to refer you to whoever runs the audiology service in your area, but it may well be a wait(mine was 9 months from audiology to ha) and the ha you are prescribed less sophisticated and more limited choice than from the private ones. People do pay 3k+ especially if borderline for nhs free ones.

People certainly do pay 3K plus for hearing aids. I do. I’ve had NHS ones, which were ok, but went private and got better ones which were a game changer. For something that helps me hear every day, I’m happy to pay a premium.

I belong to a chain called bayfields

I said to the audiologist I don't want to get tinnitus as a result of this test and she said no you won't get that but in my right ear as I have explained previously I've got a hissing noise and that's been hissing all night long in it more or less kept me awake for most of the night

I had bad hearing. Got my ears syringed. It made no difference. Then I had a hearing test and they said I had significant hearing loss. I got NHS hearing aids which were fine and showed me just how bad my bearing had become. I subsequently got private hearing aids and the difference is astonishing. Now five years later I'm very pleased I got them.

One of the GP's at my surgery is actually a cardiologist so you do get some GPS with specialist knowledge in a particular area and for some reason they decide to retrain as a GP

I have single sided deafness with tinnitus. This is how my audiologist explained it. The tinnitus is caused by the fact that my ear does not work properly, but my brain is expecting to hear things. So my brain keeps testing the nerve and because it isn’t getting sound back, it makes sounds up. Hence the whistling, whooshing and hissing.
The NHS provide modern hearing aides with blue tooth connectivity, any batteries and tubes as required, and some follow up.

certainly worth trying first.

More likely due to removal of the wax than hearing test. My tinnitus is worse when not wearing ha as sound balance is wrong.

There is a long running thread you may find useful here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/generalhealth/4821299-for-those-of-us-who-are-deaf-or-hard-of-hearing-part-2?utmcampaign=thread&utmmedium=appshare

I had a hearing test at Specsavers who provided a very good service and offered hearing aids.
I went to my gp, told him and he made a referral to nhs audiology. After about 5 weeks I was seen and test results and advice were the same as at Specsavers.
2 weeks later I had nhs hearing aids.
That was pre-Covid and waiting lists are longer.
I recently had another test, no significant changes but was given new Bluetooth hearing aids which I love.
Private hearing aids have advantages but I’m happy with my nhs ones.