Otoplasty Gallery

A young man in his pre -teens who is bothered by prominent ears. He is teased at school. His parents wanted to insure that his ears did not look unnatural or “pulled or pinned back” after surgery. Examination of his ear before surgery showed poor definition of the antihelical fold and hypertrophy (excess projection) of the conchal bowl. He is shown before and again, 6 months after bilateral otoplasty. During his surgery I formed a new antihelical fold with the Dingman oto-abrader ( Dr. Reed DIngman was one of my professors at the University of Michigan during my Plastic Surgery Residency and was a world expert on Otoplasty) and Mustarde sutures. In a case such as this where the conchal bowl is severely hypertrophic ( more than 2.5 cm) then it cannot be corrected well with sutures alone, and it is better to excise a crescent of cartilage to help pull the ear back. This was done in his case through an anterior incision just inside the rim.
He and his family are pleased that he has a normal appearance after surgery. The ears are in the proper position and no “pinned back”. And the projection in the mid ear has been reduced from 39 mm on his right to 19 mm and from 36 mm on his left to 18 mm.

A man in his late 50’s who has always been bothered by prominent ears. He has worn his hair long to hide them. He is shown before and again, 6 weeks after bilateral otoplasty. He is thrilled with looking normal, and is now comfortable wearing his hair short.

A young women in her mid-teens who is has been teased at school because of her prominent ears. She is shown before and again, a year after surgery. She loves her new ears. She always hid them before with her hair, but reports that she only wears her hair up now.

A woman in her mid 20’s with a drooping and stretched earlobe piercing. She has a second piercing which she wanted to keep. She is shown 3 months after correction with an earlobe lift and again, just after re-piercing in the office.

A delightful 8 year old troubled by prominent ears and getting teased at school. Analysis shows that she is missing the normal ear crease (“anti helix”), and her ear stands out too far from her head. It is important when performing an otoplasty (reshaping of the ears) to recreate a normal, beautiful ear. We do not want to simply push it back too far, form an unnaturally sharp crease in the cartilage, or have an ear that is overly tightened in the middle, top or bottom. She is shown 6 weeks after surgery with a gentle rasping of the cartilage to create a soft bend using a Dingman otoabrader (one of my teachers at the University of Michigan) and sutures described by a Dr. Mustarde to make the fold, sutures between the bowl of the cartilage and the fascia described by Dr. Furnas to bring the ear back, sutures described by Dr. Webster at the “tail” of the cartilage to prevent the ear lobe from being overly prominent, as well as a small skin excision behind the ear lobe to pull it back into position. She had a dressing wrapped around her ears for 2 days, and then wore an ear band while sleeping for the next month. Her smile after surgery is a reflection of the tremendous relief that she has by giving her normal, beautiful ears, and losing the burden of the deformity that caused her to be teased by her class mates.