Third Generation Dr Mom Slimline Stainless LED Pocket Otoscope now includes True View Full Spectrum LED and Pocket Clip
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List Price: Our Price: $26.92 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Health Care See more product details |
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Customer Reviews of Third Generation Dr Mom Slimline Stainless LED Pocket Otoscope now includes True View Full Spectrum LED and Pocket Clip
Customer Review: Best otoscope in its class by a mile!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am both a Family Nurse Practitioner FNP and a Mom and I can say in my honest opinion this is a really good little otoscope. I initially purchased a Dr Mom otoscope to keep with me when I travel.
My daughter has been prone to ear infections since she started school. I guess it is all the viruses she is exposed to that have gotten this problem started. It never seems to fail that when we travel for holidays she invariably starts complaining about her ears. I would be away from my office otoscope so I would end up having to take her in to an urgent clinic or an ER just so someone could get a look at her This was expensive as well as time consuming. Once I found this wonderful little otoscope I can now travel and never worry about my inability to check my daughters tympanic membrane for the earliest signs of redness. This has been a Godsend especially considering how well this little otoscope works. The light is just as bright as expensive name brand otoscope I use at my office. The view of the tympanic membrane is every bit as clear as what I see with my $300 professional otoscope yet this otoscope is small and compact and travels very nicely in my purse. I now recommend this otoscope in my practice to parents who have children with chronic ear infections. Do I recommend it to all parents.....no. I have some parents I would worry about their ability to stick a CDRom in a computer let alone an otoscope in their child's ear. On the other hand there are other parents who I am sure will become just as proficient as myself at looking into ears if given enough time to practice and learn. Actually many have become just as good at diagnosing early ear infections and seem to be right on 99.9% of the time when they bring their child in for me to confirm what they are seeing. Once I can feel comfortable with a parent I then often just call them in some medication when they call the office reporting fluid and or redness of the eardrum in their child complaining of ear discomfort. I guess the thing I need to say is that even with an otoscope that works well there is a learning curve involved in knowing how to get the information you need using it. There are no bells and whistles that begin playing just by sticking the instrument in a child's ear that has an ear infection. You have to practice and become proficient in knowing what normal is and then you will begin to recognize when things are not looking right. This takes time, patience, and some work. There are also some ear canals that you can't see into no matter what due to excessive ear wax or debris. Bottom line if you are motivated to learn to do ear exams this is a wonderful little device if you do not have an inclination and willingness to put some work into learning then an otoscope is a waste of your time and money no matter how functional the otoscope may be.
Customer Review: Did not expect such a good result
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazingly useful small item most people who are careful and confident about self "nursing" and care should have. As the prduct itself indicates this is basically a magnifier with a led light. However, it really is very useful. My husband had an ear wax build up in the past and was told to buy over the counter remedies (clean up system/ear drop and pump) and do it at home. Yes we/I did it in the past but just after getting 0.5 cm diameter piece out we thought that that must be it. When I got the otoscope two weeks ago I understood that without looking into the ear canal you can never know what is happening inside. Thanks to this so reasonably priced otoscope we toook time in doing the job gradually, putting one- or two drops of glycerin (baby oil is also fine) in the course of couple of days, softening the build up then after three times of careful and cautious cleaning with he help of the over the counter systems he is compleletly free of the build up. I would never understand what we were doing and most probably would not succseed in comptleting the clean up if I could not see what was inside. It was scary, but seeing inside helped a lot.
One needs to pull the ear quite a bit to help the ear canal to get more of a straight line, otherwise it is very easy to use.If you are applying on your children they may feel like they are punished through pulling of ear!!! It looks funny to pull the ear.
If you are applying its reuseable head make sure that you really wash them each time as recommended in order to avoid introducing bacteria. I am recommending it very strongly for those who might need it but also remind us all that the ease with which one can use it should not blind one that afterall one is engaging in a small medical examination and should also show the basic care as the health professionals take. Otherwise such self usable things may turn out to be dangerous. I am saying this becasue the view is pretty fascinating and it is very tempting to just look into everybodies ear in the family without thinking about such things.
Customer Review: Absolutely Awesome Product!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is without doubt the best product I have ever purchased off the internet. It has provided me so much peace of mind with my child who suffers from ear infections caused by chronic allergies. It will tell you if the ears are simply filled with fluid bubbles or if there is evidence of redness which means bacteria are beginning to infect the ear. This is the third Dr Mom I have purchased. I bought one for myself some time ago then I purchased another as a gift for my sister and now I am purchasing again for a friend whose child also suffers frequent ear problems. This thing has been so darn useful to me I just can't wait to purchase for friends or family once I learn someone has an ear problem. I used to think the only way I could get my child's ear looked at was by going to the Doctor. It was actually my brother who is a pediatrician who lives in a distant city from me that recommend the otoscope. He said to me.....Girl, how do you think we learned as physicians to do ear exams in medical school? We practiced on each other. Nothing you can't figure out yourself simply by looking into ears."
He was absolutely right. Once you look into enough ears you begin to realize what looks normal then when something doesn't look right you know it.
He recommended this otoscope because he said he has not seen anything else in it's price range that even comes close to working as well as this one. He says it is comparable to the very expensive one he uses in his office as far as the clarity you see when looking at an eardrum.
The otoscope is also small and light weight which I like since it is easy to stick in my purse when we travel. It never seems to fail that every time we get on a plane my child begins pulling at the ears several days after we get to our destination. I don't know if it's the stress of traveling or due to pressure changes that causes this but I do know it is nice to be able to get a look to make sure it isn't due to the start of an infection.
Customer Review: Not bad for 25 bucks, but NOT a Welch Allyn
Summary: 4 Stars
My wife (who is a RN) and I bought this guy to save an occasional trip to the Dr's office. After trying it out for a couple of days, we find that it is an OK product.
However, I feel compelled to write a review, because in our evaluation of this product before we bought it, we kept reading reviews on how this little guy is just the best thing since sliced bread and some people made claims that this unit is just as good as a $200 Welch Allyn otoscope. Hands down, this unit doesn't hold a candle to a Welch Allyn otoscope, and any nurse or doc who claims this unit can serve as a WA replacement unit with equal or greater performance, is out of their mind, IMHO. It's like comparing a black and decker entry level cordless drill to a top of the line Dewalt.
For $25 dollars and occasional use, this unit is perfect, and that is how the product is marketed. If it can give you a little assurance and save you even one trip to the doc, it's paid for itself. And I imagine most purchasers of this unit will use it half a dozen times over the next 10 years. Why go drop $200 to do this if $25 will suffice?
But a Welch Allyn it is not. The unit feels flimsy, I highly doubt it would survive any rough use or even a moderate drop. Image quality is adequate, but inferior to the WA image quality. My wife made this statement immediately after using the scope, and even after I used it, I could see the difference too (and I'm not even a trained professional).
The light intensity is less than a WA, but I'm not sure if that is because this unit uses an LED instead of an incandescent bulb.
Bottom line:
As an occasional-use otoscope for the casual user, this unit should make you very happy. But this unit IS NOT a Welch Allyn replacement, and if you want the performance and quality of a WA, you should bite the bullet and go drop $200 to get one.
Customer Review: A "must have" product if you have a baby at home
Summary: 5 Stars
At first my wife was rather skeptical about me using an otoscope. "I'd rather have a professional to do it", she said. But after I found out our baby girl had ear infection twice before she showed any symptom, now she asks me to check our baby's ears if she has a cold for more than a week. My baby does not complain much when she has ear infection, and she had infection many times when she first went to day care. If we didn't have this otoscope at home, we probably wouldn't know it until the infection became very bad!
This otoscope shows the eardrum very clearly, enough for me to determine whether there is an ear infection or not. You will need to practise many times until you know the shape AND color of a healthy eardrum. Try it on adults first. Remember NOT to force it into ears. You don't want to risk damaging the eardrum. Ask your baby's pediatrician if you need help (my baby's pediatrician showed me how to use it once).
It's not always easy to tell whether there is an infection or not. If you are not sure, and your baby is cranky, take him/her to the pediatrician. After all we didn't receive any professional training so don't take the risk.
Note that the view of this otoscope is not as big as a professional one. But a professional one is very expensive. If you want to buy a professional one, but you never use an otoscope before, I suggest you try out this one first.