Safety and care the cornerstones of Ear 2 Ear
Safety and care for patients is paramount for micro-suction ear cleaning specialist Heather Grainger and her twin-state business Ear 2 Ear.
The Ear 2 Ear Micro-Suction Ear Cleaning (Ear 2 Ear) website describes the process of micro-suction as removing: “Ear wax and anything else that shouldn’t be in the ear quickly and safely using an ultra-thin, glass suction tube similar to a tiny vacuum.”
Heather removes ear wax by use of a very gentle suction, a small sucker and some very fine glass tubes.
“It’s a very safe and gentle way of removing wax,” she said.
A registered nurse who completes regular updates, Heather has also completed a nationally-recognised course in micro-suction and aural hygiene.
Heather began seeing patients in Orange in October, 2022.
It’s an amazing story of how she first came to the colour city.
Heather was running an audiologist and micro-suction clinic business for a business owner at Devonport, Tasmania, where she lives.
She once had a man from Cowra visit her for treatment after he had blocked ears that needed urgent treatment upon his arrival in Devonport.
Upon Heather’s safe execution of service, the man mentioned he wished he could access such a service closer to home.
He then assisted Heather with some background research about Orange and potential clients.
With a former career in community health and palliative care where she often travelled in the car to see patients, the thought of combining travel and work appealed.
So, Heather decided to utilise her skills to start her own business.
She makes trips to Orange once every five or six weeks, working for three days, and in the last five months has added the Dubbo leg of visits to her service.
Heather can see children aged five and anyone older.
Her main clientele are the elderly with hearing aids.
This is because hearing aids do not work to their highest extent when the ear canal is full of ear wax.
“When you remove that ear wax, hearing aids work so much better. It’s lovely to see the look on peoples faces that they can hear so much better,” Heather said.
“It’s a dry procedure, I can see exactly what I’m doing, and I suck the wax out from the entrance in. I’m not pushing it in with water. I am sucking it out.”
An example of her quality service and client-based solutions, she once had to treat a young boy who had used pencils to scratch his ears.
He ended up having a chronic infection which was not responding to antibiotics.
“So when I got I there and started to suck out all the discharge in his ear … I found the tips of two lead pencils,” she said.
She has also sucked moths and beetles out of the ear canal and can also detect potential problems and refer clients to specialist doctors.
Last July, she went fully out on her own, starting Ear 2 Ear.
Ear 2 Ear now has a NSW branch and a Tasmanian branch.
“You have to believe in yourself,” she said.
“I felt when people in Orange and Dubbo heard about me, they would come to me. That realisation has been fulfilled.”
Heather can be contacted via her website ear2ear.com.au to book on-line or call 0455 629 905.