Cleft Earlobe/Earlobe Lift Gallery

A woman of color in her mid 20’s who has a partial tear of her left earlobe. By discussion, she did sleep with her earrings in place. She is shown before and again, 3 months
after repair under local anesthesia in the office.

A challenging case of a woman in her early 30’s who has an unusual deformity of her ears following gauges and multiple earlobe splits. She sheepishly mentioned that she had allowed a non-medical friend to “trim her ears with a 15 blade”. This unfortunately removed much of the tissue that would have been helpful to reconstruct her ears as seen in other gauges repairs on my website. I was able to design and perform a 2 stage repair of her right earlobe 6 weeks apart, and a one stage repair of her left earlobe.
I was then able to see her back to re-pierce her ears.

An Indian woman in her mid-40’s who is bothered by splitting which makes it difficult to wear her earrings. She does sleep with her earrings in. On examination she also has drooping of the earlobes. She is shown before and again, 3 months after a bilateral earlobe lift. Scars typically get thicker for 6 weeks and then fade and improve over the next year or longer. She is thrilled with the correction of the slits but also with the more youthful appearance of her ears.

A woman in her late 50’s with a complete cleft of the left earlobe. She is shown before and again, 5 years after repair. The ear had been re-pierced 3 months after her surgery, but she does not have her earrings in today. A normal shape has been restored to the earlobe.

A professional in his mid 30’s who has had gauges for many years. He had overly stretched the earlobes and had necrosis of the portion of the earlobe near his cheek. He had cut his earlobes to detach them further from the cheek attachment and them had them sutured with a simple suture and re-gauged. He is now concerned that the appearance of his earlobes might impede his progress as he moves higher into management and would like to have them corrected.
He is shown before and again, 3 months after correction in the office. I was able to use what he had left to reconstruct a normal, aesthetic earlobe.

A Hispanic woman in her early 30’s who is bothered by elongated piercings on both ears. She has three piercings but the ones bothering her are the ones closest to her cheek. She does sleep with her earrings in place. She is shown before and again, 8 months after bilateral correction of the partial clefts. An excellent contour was obtained. Scars typically get redder and thicker for 6 weeks and then begin to soften and fade for the next 2 years. Some patients are prone to developing hypertrophic or thicker than normal scars because of their skin type and genetics, and can take longer to fade and soften, and sometimes require a steroid injection to help soften and flatten the scar after repair. Her scars have an excellent contour but are thicker to palpation and itching a little and benefited from a Kenalog ( a type of injectable steroid) injection.

A woman in her later 60’s who is bothered by a partial split and drooping of her right earlobe. She does have a history of sleeping with her earrings in. She is shown before and again, 3 months after repair with earlobe lift in the office. A beautiful, youthful contour has been restored to the earlobe.

A woman in her mid 40’s who has had a gradual split of her left earlobe. She attributed this to a tear but it has gotten worse over time and she does sleep with her earrings in place. She is shown before and again, 3 months after earlobe lift/repair in the office with correction of the mild drooping of the earlobe at the time of slit repair.

A woman in her early 20’s who had her ears pierced at the age of 5 and did sleep with her earrings in. She thinks she may also have a nickel allergy. She has an almost complete split of her right earlobe and a partial split of the left earlobe, and wanted to have these repaired. On examination she also has some mild drooping of the earlobes and we decided to correct these at the same time by combining an earlobe lift with the repair. She is shown again, 3 months after repair. The ears are repaired, but also have a more youthful contour, as discussed in my video on the beautiful earlobe.

A 13 year old girl with a partial tear of her right ear from heavy earrings 5 months before. She is shown before and again, 3 months after repair in the office under local anesthesia.