New York Otoplasty Surgery

Serving Manhattan And Surrounding Areas Of New York City

Ear Surgery (Otoplasty)

You use your ears for the primary purpose of hearing things. Your inner ear canals also help you balance your movements. Also, your ears themselves may sometimes provide sexual stimulation. Your ears are seldom thought of as objects of beauty. However, if you have unattractive or even ugly ears, you may constantly be obsessing over how you look. If your ears are unusual looking, they may be a real problem for you.

Ear correction surgery, or otoplasty, is normally a fairly simple procedure, and your surgery may be fully covered by your insurance. Your ear surgery may even be performed in your surgeon's office, and local anesthesia is usually all that is necessary to perform the procedure (except for children). Also, otoplasty is completely safe, and it should never impair your hearing.

Prominent Ears

The most common abnormality is prominent ears, often referred to as "bat ears" or "Dumbo ears.” Children are most at risk for being ridiculed for this condition. By age six, your child’s ears are almost fully developed and are easily the most visible feature on your child’s small face. If they stick out, your child can be taunted unmercifully by his or her peers, and your child’s resulting trauma is liable to take years of therapy to erase, if the trauma isn’t permanent.

Prominent ears generally occur when the main fold of your child’s ear develops improperly, causing the outer part to stick out instead of allowing it to curl back against your child’s head. Sometimes the inner cupped portion of your child’s ear is too high and other times one ear of your child protrudes more than the other.

The surgical correction for your child’s problem entails making an incision behind your child’s ear and altering the cartilage in your child’s ear so that it curls back naturally against your child’s head. Your child’s ear should end up looking normal compared to other children’s, and your child’s scar will never be visible.

The best time to perform this procedure is before your child begins school. In this way, your child’s emotional scars from ridiculing will be completely circumvented.

This procedure can be performed at any time thereafter, and this ear improvement is very popular among adults as well

General anesthesia is recommended for your child, but usually adults only need local anesthesia. Your child’s head (or your head) will be wrapped for about one week after their (or your) surgery. You are advised to wear a stocking cap while you are sleeping for several weeks after your surgery.

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Other Ear Irregularities

Other irregularities cause problems as well. For example, your ears can be too close to your head, or the top part of your ears can be buried in your scalp. Your ears can be too large, or the upper area of your ears can droop over. Your ears can even be pointed. In addition, the lobes of your ears can be too big or torn and disfigured. Any of these problems may cause you a great deal of humiliation.

These other ear irregularities are discussed below.

Drooping Ears

Another common irregularity is the so called "lop ear", in which the upper portion of your ear droops or lops over. By making an incision behind your ear, cutting out your excess cartilage, and reshaping your ear into a normal-appearing ear, you may easily rectify this problem.

Ears Too Close To Your Head

Although extremely rare, this condition is the exact opposite of prominent ears. This irregularity can be rectified by placing a piece of cartilage (or silicone) underneath your skin and behind your ear to push your ear forward into a normal position.

Your Upper Ears are Too Close to Your Scalp

Drooping ears in reverse, while fairly rare, still look odd and unappealing. This problem may also prevent you from being able to wear glasses. You may have it fixed by your surgeon first cutting around the outline of your ear, and then letting your ear fall forward into a pleasant-looking position. A skin graft may be applied afterward to provide coverage over the back of your ear.

Pointed Ears

This unusual condition used to be called "satyr ears." Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame had ears that resemble this condition. For your child this ear condition can be very awkward. Fortunately, the irregularity may be easily fixed by cutting off the excess skin and cartilage of your child’s ear to produce an attractive, normal-looking ear.

Big Ears

Large ears relative to your head are another annoying problem. However, they can be reduced by making several complicated multidirectional incisions through your entire ear.  Next your surgeon will cut out selected portions of your ears, and refit the remaining tissue into a smaller ear which fits your head. The outcome of this complex procedure is usually acceptable, but is does leave external scars.

Smaller Ears

There is currently no surgical procedure which will make your ears bigger in size without making them look deformed.

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Large Earlobes

Your large earlobes can be fixed by using similar techniques to the ones described in making your big ears smaller.

Torn Earlobes

This common occurrence happens either suddenly or gradually when your earring is ripped through the bottom of your pierced earlobe. Your split earlobe can be repaired once your rip has healed, by suturing together the exposed edges of your earlobe.

You won’t even have to repierce your ear after the procedure, since it can be performed without disturbing your earring hole.

Postotoplasty Expectations

You will usually experience very little pain after your otoplasty, and your sutures may be taken out in about a week. In some cases you may have your head wrapped until your sutures are removed. Your improvement should be immediately obvious, and your may resume your normal activity as soon as you feel ready. You rarely, if ever, hear of postsurgical complications. Impaired hearing is practically impossible, since only your external ear parts are touched in your surgery. Your ear tissue heals very well, and you will almost never see any noticeable scars.

The only risk is that your surgeon may fail to give you your ideal cosmetic result. For example, he or she may not put your ears back in exactly where you wanted them to go, or your surgeon may create other irregularities in your ear. This is extremely unlikely to happen, however, and if it does, most problems can be rectified later on.

If you are considering cosmetic ear surgery (otoplasty) in Manhattan, New York City (NYC), or greater New York, contact CosMedica. Our experienced Plastic Surgery Center in New York will give you a free consultation.

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