Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon
Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon
A woman’s earlobes, while they may be small, have a significant impact on her appearance. Naturally occurring earlobes take on a variety of forms, sizes and shapes, and fall at differing heights and positions. They may be on the side of the face, but they are a prominent feature of the face, often enhanced with jewellery. Ear piercing is one of the oldest and most popular forms of body modification and is an important cultural symbol in many regions of the world. In India, Hindu girls and boys have their ears pierced in a religious ceremony called Kharnavedha. The Karen women of Burma wear traditional earplugs which stretch the lobe. Even Shakespeare was reputed to wear a small gold hoop earring.
Split ear lobules is the commonest acquired condition mainly because of use /overuse of heavy earrings which is compounded with maturity of age and loss of soft tissue elasticity. Sometimes ear lobules could be very big in size or stretched, widened and elongated. Ear lobules can be reduced in size under local anesthetics as an office procedure.
Many times ear lobule is not completely split but there is a significant widening of the hole in the ear lobule, this may compromise and/or unable a woman to use earrings.
At our practice, we use dissolving stitches. The post-operative care involves topical application of antibiotic ointment following daily shower and use of painkillers as and when required. It is often advisable to wait for three months for maturation of scar following the split ear lobule repair before embarking upon re-piercing.
We would advise you to send us some good quality photographs so that our surgeon can make some initial comments.
The cost is from£500 depending upon the split.
As with any surgical procedure, complications can occur. These can include scarring, bleeding, infection, under correction, over correction, asymmetry and recurrence. Revisional surgery may be necessary.
The size, shape and appearance of the earlobe is restored. The earlobe may then be re-pierced.
Healing begins to occur within a week, with the stitches dissolving after around two weeks. There is no need to have the stitches removed; they dissolve on their own. After around three months, the area is usually fully healed.
The operation is almost always carried out under local anaesthetic and usually takes around 20 to 30 minutes. Apart from a slight degree of discomfort when the anaesthetic injection is administered, the entire procedure is pain free. The split is refreshed, which means that a clean cut is made to both sides, and the split is then stitched using dissolvable sutures. A stretched earlobe is treated similarly.
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