Cerumen Removal – A Sticky Subject
How do you handle a client who has come in for a test but has an accumulation of cerumen in the ear canal? Hey – where else would there be an accumulation of cerumen?
Every professional has run into the situation where there is a highly motivated client who only took six years to make the decision to be fit with hearing instruments. You look in the client’s ear canals and all you can see is a lot of dark brown, gummy wax.
If you happen to live and work in a “right to remove” state, such as Arizona, and have been properly trained in cerumen removal, you give the client the option of going to an ENT, going home, or allowing you to do the removal for a modest fee that you will apply towards the cost of the instruments. In the hope that the hearing loss was caused by wax, the client tells you to go ahead and do your thing – and more likely than not, you have just saved a sale.
This scenario is, unfortunately, against the law in states such as California where a professional is barely allowed to touch a client and wax removal is verboten. Also, this service is verboten in some of the large chain operations, no matter which state this scenario occurs in, since they require all of their offices to adhere to the strictest interpretation of the law in the most restrictive state in which they dispense. (Uniformity wins out over comon sense.) It seems a shame that these corporations are sending their business to their competitors (the other people reading this blog) when their own people, with the proper training, could be doing this work.
As in everything we do, proper training is essential. Cerumen removal is usually a simple thing to do, but you never know what you may run into and being trained can help you make the right decision. I know from experience that what looks like a two minute procedure can turn into the client having to use a cerumenalytic and returning for three or four visits before all of the cerumen has been removed without injury.
A full set of instruments and equipment required to do cerumen removal costs less than $1700. and the formal training only takes one day. For those of you who are in a “right to remove” state, I encourage you to consider including this feature in your list of services. It will not only help save potential sales, but it will make you some good friends who will go out of their way to refer their friends to you.
But like any other business decision, you need to carefully evaluate whether this service is something you should do, and can do (legally, physically). Among those people you should consult when making your decision… don’t forget your insurance agent and make sure that you have a local ENT or hospital emergency room close by that you can count on in the event of a problem. I always said to my employees “Know your limits and fight the temptation to go beyond what you know you can do”.
