For personal reasons, children and adults patients dislike the appearance of their ears. While some patients suffer from prominent or protruding ears, others suffer from deformities from trauma. Still, others just simply want to reduce the prominence of their earlobes or repair damage caused by elongation and stretching.
Who Is a Candidate?
The procedure to improve the appearance of prominent ears can be performed at an early age, generally around 6 to 10 years of age or when the patient makes the decision. In children, this ear pinning surgery can drastically improve self esteem in the affected patient. Optimally, your child has expressed insecurity about his or her ears and wants to revise their shape; cooperation goes a long way toward best results in a children’s otoplasty.
The Surgery
Dr. Perez performs a total approach to otoplasty with a posterior inconspicuous scar. With his technique, Dr. Perez will remove a portion of the ear cartilage and will use sutures to modify and retain the new shape of the ear. He then uses an anterior approach to weaken the forces on the anterior portion of the cartilage. This thus limits the probability of recurrence of the deformity.
This procedure is performed under general anesthesia during childhood. As an adult the patient has the option of local anesthesia and oral sedation, performed in our in office surgical suite.
The Recovery
Most ear pinning patients, even young children, tolerate the procedure very well. Most pain is controlled well with oral narcotic pain medication.
During the early postoperative period, the patient needs to be careful to avoid any activity with direct contact. The surgical site will be covered with a bulky surgical gauze head wrap, and patients will need to sleep with their head elevated with caution not to turn side to side while sleeping. Ear pinning patients can expect there to be swelling and bruising which will usually start to improve after 10 days and decreasing by week 4. Like any surgical cosmetic procedure, the final result will be set in 6 to 12 months.
Contact us Today!
For more information about ear surgery at Renue Aesthetic Surgery, please contact us at 913-685-1108 today!
