Face Gallery

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 late 20’s who had her earlobes gauged when she was 13. She no longer likes the look and also wanted to correct a droopy appearance of the earlobes. She is shown before and again, 3 months after gauges repair combined with an earlobe lift, when she returned for repiercing in the office.

A woman in her mid 20’s who no longer likes the look of gauges. She has had them out for a few months. She is shown before and again, 4 months after bilateral gauges repair including an earlobe lift. Scars get redder and thicker for 6 weeks and then begin to fade and soften over the next 2 years. Her right ear scar is slightly redder than the left, and may be from sleeping on that side after the repair-I encourage my patients to protect the repair with bandaids while sleeping for the first weeks to avoid excessive stress on the newly repaired earlobes.

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.

A woman in her early 70’s who is bothered by earrings falling out of her holes as well as droopy earlobes. She has a partial split o the earlobes, most likely from sleeping with her earrings in.

She is shown before and again 3 months after bilateral earlobe lift/cleft repair. Scars typically get thicker and redder for 6 weeks and then begin to soften and fade over the next 2 years. At 3 months, her scars are soft enough to repierce her ears in the orfice.

A woman in her mid 30’s with gauges who has decided that this no longer fits her personal image any more. She is shown 3 months after repair with “T” plasty. Gauges repairs can be challenging and each repair is customized to utilize the remaining tissue to construct a normal earlobe. . We have restored a beautiful, youthful appearance to her earlobes, and she is thrilled to be able to get them pierced again.