Prominent (“Bat”) ears, a condition known as macrotia, can be a source of great embarrassment for many individuals. If you are interested in correcting this problem for you or your child, you may anticipate natural-looking results with ear surgery under the care of Dr. Jazayeri at Elán Institute for Plastic Surgery.

 

This cosmetic surgery procedure involves repositioning the ears into a more anatomical position, providing an overall more pleasing facial appearance. One or both ears may protrude in varying degrees, but this is not associated with hearing loss as macrotia is strictly an aesthetic problem. Ear surgery is a highly individualized procedure, and although you may want to prevent stares in public, teasing of you or your child, and to eliminate feelings of self-consciousness and shame, it is important that you do not undergo otoplasty to fulfill someone else’s needs or to achieve perfection.

In order to qualify for otoplasty, you should be:

• Realistic in your goals and expectations
• Healthy without a life-threatening illness and any medical conditions that may impair healing
• A non-smoker

Children, specifically, have their own requirements. If you want your child to undergo ear surgery, he or she must:

• Be at least five years old or have cartilage that is stable enough for correction
• Not have any untreated chronic ear infections
• Be cooperative and follow instructions well
• Have the ability to communicate his or her feelings
• Be comfortable with the idea as well as discussion of surgery

Procedural Steps for Ear Surgery

Dr. Jazayeri will recommend the best choice of anesthesia for you; local, intravenous sedation, or general anesthesia may be administered.

The incision is typically made behind the ears, in order to conceal any possible visible scarring. Should your incisions need to be made on the front of the ear, they will be made within its folds so they are not noticeable. Based on your, or your child’s condition, particular surgical techniques will be used during surgery. You may require a newly created or increased antihelical fold, which is made just inside the rim of the ear. In addition, you may also need to reduce the enlarged conchal cartilage; this is the largest and deepest concavity of the external ear. Dr. Jazayeri will use internal, non-removable sutures to secure the newly shaped cartilage in place, and close the incision with external stitches. He will delicately perform this procedure, and avoid providing you with an unnatural “pinned back” appearance.

Recovery

You may feel discomfort directly after ear surgery. This is normal and can be controlled with pain medication. Although you may feel itchy under bandages, you must leave these intact and not remove them. Removing these bandages for any reason could compromise the results of your procedure, and possibly require a secondary surgery. Otoplasty results are permanent, and are immediately noticeable after the initial phase of healing is complete and the dressing is removed.