Does anyone own their own otoscope?

[klmama]

I think of this every time my dc get ear infections. If I owned my own, I'd be able to do my own recheck and save us the inconvenient trip back to the doctor with a healthy child. If you do own one, how did you know it was good? Where did you buy it?

[JudoMom]

I think of this every time my dc get ear infections. If I owned my own, I'd be able to do my own recheck and save us the inconvenient trip back to the doctor with a healthy child. If you do own one, how did you know it was good? Where did you buy it?

 

Back when my oldest was a baby, I got an inexpensive $10-$20 one at Target (he had a handful of ear infections when he was a baby). It has served us very well, and has saved us trips to the doctor (because there was no redness) or confirmed we should go in (redness).

[Soph the vet]

I have a Welch-Allen, it runs about $400 but I use it for work:D.

[mommylaw]

Yes, I bought it off eBay when my youngest had serial infections. I use it quite often. I love looking in ears.

 

I think it was around $40, two years ago.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I have one but my dh is an R.N. It took me awhile of using it to get used to how a "normal" ear is supposed to look like in there. I would be able to tell if it was a raging infection, but now I can tell more subtle things because I've been looking in the same ear canals for so many years! Both my dc have trouble with ear wax and it helps me to see if they are blocked - or if my kids really have no excuse for "not hearing" me!!:bigear:

[yslek]

Dh has one at work that he can bring home if needed. It's come in handy a few times.:)

 

Kelsy

[klmama]

So, how do you handle it if it is blocked by wax? I keep reading that we shouldn't use cotton swabs, but how else do you take care of it?

[In The Great White North]

When ds was getting a bazillion ear infections, I bought one and couldn't see a thing! I ended up returning it and they didn't bat an eye when I said I couldn't see the ear drum at all.

[Robin in Tx]

I bought a pretty nice one, rather expensive, and I couldn't figure out how to use it. I never knew if what I was looking at looked okay or looked infected. Every time we went to the doctor, what I thought I saw and what he said it was were two different things. Good luck if you give it a try. Maybe it was my scope, but I don't think so. And I think I'm pretty smart about this sorta thing... all I can say is it confounded me.

[Jean in Newcastle]

So, how do you handle it if it is blocked by wax? I keep reading that we shouldn't use cotton swabs, but how else do you take care of it?

 

I actually use a big 20 ml syringe that my dh (an RN) brought me. But I had used one of those blue baby bulb syringe successfully too. I put warm water in a small bowl, then use the bulb syringe to suck up some water. Then I squirt the water into the ear (with the bowl under the ear to catch the yucky water). Make sure you have a towel around their shoulder to catch stray drips. I keep doing the squirting. Every now and then I recheck the ear with the otoscope. If you have "concrete" in the ear like my ds10 does, I sometimes soften the wax first with Murine ear drops (carbamide peroxide). If you have the La Brea tar pits in there like my dd6 does, I do lightly use a cotton swab in the outer area of the ear only. If you keep squirting the water you should get small chunks of wax (and occasionally a big hunking thing) coming out. Now if you've had to squirt for awhile or if there was a lot of wax in there, the ear will end up looking a big red and inflamed. That doesn't necessarily mean that there is an infection. The whole water squirting process is a bit irritating to the ear canal.

[Lady Katherine]

The whole water squirting process is a bit irritating to the ear canal.

 

I find that hydrogen peroxide works better than water.

[amyable]

I bought a pretty nice one, rather expensive, and I couldn't figure out how to use it. I never knew if what I was looking at looked okay or looked infected. Every time we went to the doctor, what I thought I saw and what he said it was were two different things. Good luck if you give it a try. Maybe it was my scope, but I don't think so. And I think I'm pretty smart about this sorta thing... all I can say is it confounded me.

 

It's not just you - I'm a former speech-language pathologist and in our audiology classes we had training in using an otoscope - many of the students (myself included) couldn't make heads or tails of anything. I'm always amazed when the docs can look in for two seconds and make a diagnosis. :lol: