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Specsavers hearing assessment

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I am new to all this and am now fitted with Specsaver Elite hearing aids. I am not that impressed at present. High frequencies impose a crackle on speech that can only be alleviated by turning the volume down or by sitting the app on the comfort setting.

When I had my hearing assessed they collected the ‘curves’ using headphones in a booth without cleaning the ear canals of wax. (Boots had said, at about the same time, that they could not test till the wax was removed!

When I ordered the , they did clean the ear canals prior to fitting but did not do a recalibration.

Is this OK?

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Not really.

You’ve been ‘sheep-dipped’ by Specsavers in order to separate you from your cash as quickly as possible.

Testing and fitting without prior wax removal (of fully occluded wax) is unethical and wants reporting to the HCPC.If you’d actually said which dispenser, I’d have a duty to report it as such.

Didn’t what the guy from Boots said give you pause to think about it?

To be clear, the ‘headphones in the booth’ testing was done before the order was placed. When the aids arrived in the dealership the wax was removed immediately prior to fitting. I asked if loading the early test results into them was OK as it could be misleading due to the presence of wax. I was led to believe that the sophisticated aids would take care of that.

Regarding Boots. I was in town booked into two places for possible hearing checks. I had been procrastinating for years. Boots looked and advised wax removal so wouldn’t do anything. Specsavers proceeded with testing. Its a sad fact of life that we are in the hands of the experts at times like this.

Never heard the term ‘sheep-dipped’. What does it mean?

Sheep-Dipped - in, splash, out: as fast as possible = least clinic time.

Wax can give you a different hearing result by around 20dB. If they’d re-tested you on fitting after the wax was gone, then all good. Otherwise it’s poor clinical and fitting practice.

Very interesting.

Does wax depress all frequencies by around 20dB or does it have more influence on specific frequencies.

What you have said certainly suggests I need to have a second hearing check following wax removal and a recalibration of the aids.

I can’t give you a definitive answer on that as it’s impossible to know the level of occlusion, density and depth of the wax. It’s just really bad practice to fit on this basis.

As a scientist myself, I guessed that would be the answer. Can you reference of the same person before and immediately after wax removal. And yes, I accept the caveat that ever person will be different.

Cool: as a scientist you have the same access to Google that I do……

It’s an accepted norm that you don’t test fully occluded Ears. We use insert-earphones, so if the ear is fully blocked, they can’t be inserted safely when there’s a lot of wax in the canal. It’s 101 clinical practice to shift an obvious physical obstruction to the test.

Here’s a particular study on it: Hearing Loss Due To Different Types of Impacted Cerumen8.

Thanks for that. Very interesting. has some great stuff.

I guess that one has to have ultimate trust in the Audiologist. They have 100 days to prove their worth.

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