Cleft Earlobe/Earlobe Lift Gallery

An Asian woman in her early 20’s with a partial cleft of her right earlobe from her earrings. She is shown before and again, 3 months after repair in the office. Scars will typically become thicker and redder for 6 weeks after repair and then begin to fade and improve for the next 2 years. 3 months is usually a good time to re-pierce the ear.

A surgical nurse in her early 60’s who is bothered by a recurrent cleft of her left ear, as well as a drooping appearance of both earlobes. She has had previous repair of the earlobes elsewhere. She is shown before and again, 3 months after an earlobe “lift”, when she returned for re-piercing. An ear lobe lift is different than a simple repair. A wedge is marked by swinging the ear lobe back and forth across an imaginary point to mark the proper size. This corrects the drooping as well as the cleft. After discussions her recurrent tears may be due to sleeping with her earrings in at night time. So it’s good to fix a problem, but even better to prevent one. After her ears have healed from the piercings ( about 4 weeks) I have encouraged her to start removing her earrings while sleeping.

A woman in her mid 40’s with a partial cleft of her left ear, presumably from sleeping with her earrings in place.  The slit allows her earring backings to pull through and the earrings to slant down.  In addition she has some drooping of the ear lobe with earrings in place.  She has elected for an ear lobe lift at the time of repair.

A small wedge is designed by gently pulling the ear lobe back and forth across an imaginary center point.  This corrects the drooping at the time of the earlobe repair and is the difference between a standard repair and a lift.

A woman in her later 20’s with a partial cleft of her left earlobe, perhaps from sleeping with her earrings in place. She is shown before and again, 3 months after repair, and immediately after re-piercing in the office.

A man in his mid 20’s who wishes to join the army but has “gauges” in his ears. He is shown before and again, 6 weeks after repair. Scars are at their thickest and reddest at 6 weeks but will not begin to fade and improve over the next 2 years. He is happy to have “normal” earlobes again.

A woman in her later 60’s who has had her ear lobe repaired in Boston 8 years before, but has torn it again. She does not have a history of trauma to the ear or of wearing large hoop earrings. It is fine to fix it again, but better to prevent it recurring. On further discussion it turns out that this is the side that she sleeps on. She wears large diamond studs and does not take them out at night. So the earring post may lever back and forth across the earlobe while she is sleeping and slowly cut through it. The solution after she is to plan to take the earrings out when sleeping. She is shown before and again, 4 months after an ear lobe lift. A lift is a little different than a simple repair. Instead of simply excising and repairing the cleft as we might do in someone younger, the ear lobe is swung back and forth across an imaginary point and a wedge is marked. This corrects the drooping of the earlobe and restores a youthful appearance. Scars will continue to fade and improve for 2 years after surgery. I typically recommend that patients wait 3 months to have the earlobe repierced.

A man in his early 20’s with an unusual birth deformity of a bifid earlobe. He is shown before and again, 4 months after repair under local anesthesia in the office. He wished to have his ear pierced, and this was done for him at his 4 month visit.

A woman in her mid 40’s whose ear piercing has stretched out and elongated to the point that her backings are pulling through the ear and the earrings hang unnaturally. She is shown before and again, 3 months after repair. In her case we did not need to repierce her ear as her previous piercing was brought forward by the surgery into a good position on each earlobe.

A woman in her early 60’s who is bothered by drooping and a cleft of her earlobe. She is shown before and again, 5 months after a repair, combined with an “ear lobe lift” in the office. A lift is similar to a repair but a slightly larger wedge of skin is removed to account for the excess skin that occurs as the earlobe deflates with age. The earlobe is swung back and forth past an imaginary point to precisely mark the size of the wedge to be excised. In this way, the ear lobe appears more youthful after the repair than it would by only repairing the cleft.

A woman is shown before and again, 3 months after repair of a left cleft earlobe under local anesthesia in the office.