Planning for Surgery

Nearly all surgeons recommend parents to stay vigilant to their child’s feelings about protruding ears. Don’t insist on the surgery until your child wants the modificaton. Children who feel uncomfortable about their ears and want the surgery are as a rule more cooperative during the process and happier with the result.

During the first meeting, your surgeon will estimate your child’s condition or yours if you are considering surgery for yourself, and suggest the most effective technique. He or she will also give you specific directions on how to prepare for surgery.

The Surgery

  Ear surgery usually takes about two to three hours, although complex procedures may take longer. The technique will depend on the problem in the whole. With one of the other common techniques, the surgeon makes a small incision in the back of the ear to depict the ear cartilage. He or she will then form the cartilage and bend it back toward the head. Non-removable stitches may be used to help preserve the new shape. Rarely, the surgeon will remove a larger piece of cartilage to supply a more natural-looking fold when the surgery is complete.

The other technique includes a similar incision in the back of the ear. Skin is removed and sutures are used to fold the cartilage back on itself to restructure the ear without removing cartilage.
For the most part, ear surgery will leave a faint scar in the back of the ear that will grow fainter with time. Even if only one ear comes out to protrude; surgery is usually performed on both ears for a better balance.

Where the Surgery Will be Performed

Ear surgery is usually performed as an outpatient procedure in a hospital, a doctor’s office-based surgical facility, or a self-supporting surgery center. Occasionally, your doctor may recommend that the procedure be done as an inpatient procedure, in this case you can plan on staying overnight in the hospital.

Types of Anesthesia

For a little child, your surgeon may advise general anesthesia, so the child will sleep through the operation. For elder children or adults, the surgeon may have a preference to use local anesthesia in connection with a sedative, so you or your child will be awake but relaxed.