Thank you for your question.
You submitted 2 photos of your right ear.
One from the front and one from the side and you ask in your question about the ears protruding
particularly the upper part of the ear protruding when you look from the front and you’re
asking about your options.
Well, I can certainly give you some guidance into how I assess people who are concerned
about prominent ears.
A little bit of background, I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial
plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
I’ve been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years and dealing with
prominent ears is a part of the practice of cosmetic surgery and I can certainly share
with you my approach and experience.
So to begin with, in assessing a person who’s concerned about prominent ears, it is actually
a very systematic way to approach this based on the anatomy of the ear that can potentially
benefit from correction.
So we look at the ear basically into thirds.
The upper third, the middle and the lower.
The upper third being what we refer to as the helix, antihelix part of the ear, the
middle which is where the ear canal is and an area called conchal bowl and the lower
part of the ear, the earlobe which is called the pinna.
So when you look at yourself and you noticed that the upper part of the ear is protruding
relative to what you like then looking from the side, I would say that a way to look at
this is to say that you have something called an undeveloped antihelical fold and what that
means is essentially there is a crease inside the ear which is a fold that allows the upper
part of the ear to be turned inward.
And in terms of the relative position, there is some absolute guidelines or I should say
a range of guidelines as to how much of a distance there should be for each part of
the ear from the scalp or from the skin and then there is also the aesthetic appearance
that the surgeon and the patient basically work on together.
So in developing the antihelical fold and developing that crease, essentially it’s
a surgical procedure and is variation.
It falls on the broad category of a procedure called otoplasty.
So briefly, it is essentially a procedure that in our practice, we do it under local
anesthesia .Sometimes we give people some sedation but basically it’s a pretty straightforward
procedure in terms of the approach which is from behind the ear inside the crease in the
back of the ear.
And what we do is create a fold by placing sutures and the sutures are often referred
to as Mustarde sutures and is placed in a way so that when those sutures are tied, the
ear folds over and creates that crease and that is done from behind the ears so there
is no external obvious incision from the side or from the back really because it is inside
the crease.
So it is a very nice and elegant procedure.
There are always risks and benefits to every surgery and the usual concerns about infection
or bleeding are always there but I think that it is a relatively straightforward procedure
for you.
Of course, you also have to think about what you think the ear looks like once it’s folded
in because sometimes people will not realize that they don’t want their ear to be so
far back as well as maybe try to be just kind of in line so it can be kind of subtle.
So that is something that should be discussed with a surgeon once you move forward with
doing a consultation and that’s what I’m recommending.
Find qualified, experienced surgeons who perform otoplasty and have this discussion and see
who you feel you comfortable with and I think it’s worthwhile considering.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question.