Repair of Gauged Ear Gallery

A woman of color in her early 40’s who had her ears pierced initially in Ethiopia when she was very young. She does not have a history of “gauges”, but her holes have always been large.  Because of their size, they are similar to correcting the deformity from gauges.  She is shown before and again, 3 months after repair under local anesthesia in the office.

Details: A man in his later 20s who has gauged ears and no longer likes the appearance.  He started gauging his ears when he was 13.  The appearance of his ears restricts his future career opportunities and he would like them to look normal again.  He is shown before and again, 6 weeks after repair in the office under local anesthesia.  Scars are typically at their reddest and thickest at  6 weeks and will then typically fade and soften over the next 2 years.  We are having him start topical silicone to help the scars to mature faster. The scars are red as we would expect at just 6 weeks but the new contour is excellent.

A woman with gauges in her late 30s, who no longer likes the appearance and wishes to be able to wear normal earrings.  She is shown before and again, 3 months after the reconstruction of her gauged earlobes in the office under local anesthesia and again, just after re-piercing.  She is thrilled to have normal-appearing ears again.

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.