Ears / Otoplasty

Otoplasty

Otoplasty is a surgical procedure to set the anteriorly protuberant or “lop” ear back closer to the side of the head. In certain culture, the lop ear catches all the fortune instead of letting it pass by. However for most people with lop ear deformity, it is the bane of their life; and, some patients refuse to pull their hair back due to their lop ears. Fortunately, the procedure is relatively straight forward and entails making an incision in the back of the ear; and, a fold in the cartilage of the ear is created called antihelix using carefully placed sutures to set the ear backwards. The experienced surgeon understands the finer nuance of creating as natural looking ear as possible, including not pinning too posteriorly, and avoiding the common “telephone” ear appearance. Most of the time, the cartilage is weakened and sutured together to create the fold. In certain cases, if the main body of the cartilage is thickened and shaped like a cup (cup ear deformity), excess portion of the cartilage is trimmed or removed to reshape the ear. At the time of the consultation, Dr. Kang will carefully analyze your ear shape and advise the best way to make your ear appear as natural as possible. The healing time is usually a week, during which time a dressing will be kept to minimize any bruising and swelling.