Specialised ear care in Kingscourt

Ear Care Clinics have been offering their audiology services in Kingscourt for the past year.

Specialising in addressing complex audiological issues including tinnitus, conductive hearing loss, and profound hearing loss, they also offer solutions and advice to improve your hearing health.

“It’s more than just hearing, we look after ears,” says owner Frank McGrath.

Having qualified as a marine electronics officer in radio and radar in 1980, Frank spent 23 years in the electronics industry before retraining as an audiologist in 2005.

He qualified in 2009 and since then has been operating ear clinics in Drogheda, Dundalk and Kingscourt.

The main piece of advice he gives regarding ear care is to “leave your ears alone”.

“Don’t poke them with anything, wax is normal, wax is healthy, wax has antiseptic, anti-biotic and insect repellent properties and it moisturises the skin and protects the ear.

“Leave it [wax] alone,” he cautioned.

“Use your little finger every now and again if there’s excess.”

The next piece given is to wear ear protection if in a noisy environment.

For those wearing earphones to listen to music he warns “don’t blow the head off yourself”, referencing studies that show music played too loud can result in hearing loss.

“A person with mild to moderate hearing loss is three times more likely to suffer with dementia if it’s neglected, a person with severe hearing loss is up five times more likely to suffer from dementia.”

Red flags

The first signs a person may need a hearing test include noticing you have the TV or other technology turned up louder than usual.

Another is getting irritated with people perceived to be mumbling, or asking them to repeat themselves.

The “most serious sign” is when you start skipping social events because you won’t hear what’s going on.

“You’re starting to socially disengage, you’re not going to things or not being involved because you don’t know what’s going on. “That’s a big red flag,” suggests Frank.

Tinnitus

The Tipperary man says Ear Care Clinics are specialists in tinnitus- an experience of ringing or other noises in one or both of the ears.

Ear Care Clinics “provide a full service for tinnitus sufferers” having developed their own “unique” methodology for treatment.

“There’s nobody who’s able to give the promise that 90% of the people who come through the door can experience their tinnitus being reduced while they’re there in the clinic.

The vast majority experienced “very significant improvement” says Frank, who explains that “everyone is unique, every tinnitus case is unique.”

The hearing specialist regard the root cause of tinnitus as an anomaly that requires intervention.

“There is a small irregularity in their hearing that leaves a gap and in that gap tinnitus, which is essentially brain noise, manifests itself.

“Your brain, your auditory cortex sees there is a gap there and insists on filling it. It fills it with abnormal electrical activity that’s in the brain.

“We find where the gap is and appropriately fill the gap,” he says.

Sensory gating

For example, if hearing loss is causing the tinnitus they fit an appropriate aid to allow natural sound fill the gap.

“If it’s a person with no hearing loss then we can retrain their brains, we provide natural sound stimulation in that gap,” he said, adding they get the customers to do exercises.

“Our bodies are full of noise and vibration but we don’t hear them because of sensory gating, so the exercises we get people to do is focusing on sensory gating to filter out the inappropriate signals that our brains are allowing us to perceive as a tinnitus sound.”

A thirty minute hearing health test costs €30.

Treatments are by appointment only, however there is somebody in the office on Main Street everyday with a range of hearing products on offer. He urged people to call they have concerns.

“If you have even the slightest worry, get a test,” he urged.