Repair of Gauged Ear Gallery

A woman in her early 30’s who had gauges when she was 19.  She no longer likes the look and the size of the holes makes it difficult to wear traditional earrings.  She has had the gauges out for 2 years.  She is shown before and again, 3 months after bilateral gauges repair, and again, just after re-piercing her ears for her in the office.  Scars typically become thicker and redder for 6 weeks and then fade and improve over the next 2 years

A woman of color in in mid 30’s with partial splits and drooping of her earlobes She attributes this to wearing heavy earrings and sleeping with her earrings in.  She is shown before and again, 3 months after bilateral earlobe lift in the office, done by excising 11 mm wedges from each side.  I had her start topical silicone at 6 weeks to help with the scarring.  She is also shown immediately after re-piercing her ears in the office.

Discussion:  We could have simply repaired the split.   But the ears had a droopy appearance which was not pleasing to the eye.  An earlobe lift performed at the same time gives her a more beautiful and youthful appearing earlobe.

A woman in her late 20’s with stretched earlobes from gauges. She is also bothered by a drooping appearance of her earlobes. She is shown before and again, 5 months after bilateral repair with earlobe lift. She is thrilled with the improved appearance of her ears. She is able to use her previously second piercings to wear her earrings now. Scars are typically thicker and redder for 6 weeks and then will soften and fade over the next 2 years.

A woman in her early 20’s with gauges since she was 13. She has decreased the size recently but no longer wishes to have gauges and would lie to have more normal looking earlobes. She is shown before and again, 3 months after repair. Scars get redder and thicker for 6 weeks and then soften and fade over the neA woman in her early 20’s with gauges since she was 13. She has decreased the size recently but no longer wishes to have gauges and would lie to have more normal looking earlobes. She is shown before and again, 3 months after repair. Scars get redder and thicker for 6 weeks and then soften and fade over the next 2 years. She is thrilled to have normal earlobes again.

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 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 early 30’s with bilateral gauges who no longer likes the appearance. She shared with me that her mother and fiancé are both thrilled now that she has normal, attractive earlobes after her gauges repair. Her fiancé said this was the only thing that he would have wished to change about her. She is shown before and again, 3 months after gauges repair and again, just after repiercing in the office. Scars are typically at their thickest and reddest at 6 weeks and then fade and improve over the next 2 years. She sleeps on her right side and even though she protected these with bandaids while sleeping for the first 6 weeks, that scar is slightly thicker and redder at this early stage.

A man in his mid 30’s who had gauges in college and the holes never shrunk enough after he removed them. He is changing careers and does not want the stigma of having had gauges. He is shown before and again, 3 months after bilateral repair in the office. Scars will typically continue to fade and improve for 1-2 years. He is already thrilled to have a normal appearance again.

A woman in her late 20’s who had gauges of the ears when she was younger. Despite removing these her earlobes still had a deformed appearance. She was no longer comfortable with the appearance of her ears. She had recently moved to a new area and felt that people were judging her based on the appearance of her gauges, and this no longer represented how she wished to present herself. She is shown before and again, 3 months after gauges repair in the office under local anesthesia. She is thrilled with the new appearance of her ears. Scars will typically fade over the next 2 years. I re-pierced her ears for her in the office and she is thrilled to be able to wear normal earrings.