Thank you
for your question!
You describe in your question a situation where you’re two months out after Otoplasty
and that from your description, your ears have gone back to its original position.
And you are if it’s normal and you’re asking based on your doctor’s feedback that
if it is normal for the ears to move and that the final results, I believe is that, what
you are trying to say it happens in 6 months and you are asking whether or not this is
the case and this is true.
You did not submit a photo but I can give you some perspective from what I am hearing
and what might be the case in your situation.
I’ll give you a little bit of background.
I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon and a fellowship trained oculofacial plastic and
reconstructive surgeon, practicing in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years and Otoplasty
is one of the surgeries we do offer in our practice.
I have a certain system in place for the way I do Otoplasty and I have some preferences
that might give you some insight that as to what maybe the case in your situation.
So to begin with, when it comes to otoplasty you have to think the ear in terms of thirds:
the upper third, the middle and the lower third.
And the anatomy that is relevant in otoplasty is, as far as the cartilage is concerned,
it’s very important how the cartilage is handled in the upper and middle part of the
ears.
The upper part is referred to as the helical fold as well as the middle part is the conchal
bowl.
Now without learning all this anatomy, I can tell you that it almost sounds like is that
the part that has moved outward for you has been probably the center or the middle part.
Now, there are many different ways to do otoplasty.
There is one challenge that always has to be overcome and that is called the memory
of the cartilage.
The cartilage has a certain springiness to it and it tends to go back to its original
shape even if you fold so which brings to what I suspect is the situation.
You may have had a procedure called the setback procedure where the cartilage was brought
towards the back of the head or towards the skull in a way that is using sutures and sutures
only.
Now I know that there is going to be some controversy to my answer but what one of the
things that is important is also how cooperative the cartilage is.
From my experience, I actually do resection and removal of the cartilage and then reset
it in a way so that the stitches and the cartilage are the way even if those stitches were released,
it wouldn’t spring back and I’ve seen this in other patients who had that situation
where the ear would go back out and they come in for a second opinion.
So I think that in your situation, you may need reoperation if your ears have gone back
to where they were after two months.
It’s hard for me to believe that they are going back in the other direction.
With every surgery, there’s going to be physician’s preferences on what they do.
In our practice, after we perform otoplasty that means restoration of the antihelical
as well as the conchal bowl and may be resection or repositioning of the ear lobe.
We have patients wear headband or like a sweatband when they go to sleep to kind of maintain
a certain position but I do customize that individually as well.
The point is we want the cartilage to heal in a predictable way so that you can maximize
the desired outcome and symmetry.
There is always a little drift so your doctor certainly can accurate things that there is
shifting but there should be significant improvement and a stable improvement after all has been
said and done.
So you want to wait out the full few months to let things settle out and of course follow
up with your doctor and see what your options will be in terms of revision if your ears
are back to the way they started.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question!