Find out how Dr. Lamperti is able to make large bulky earlobes less big and less hanging.
When one thinks about otoplasty or plastic surgery to the ear you probably most commonly think of ear pinning surgery to make the ears stick out less.
While this is a common issue and treatment another less commonly thought of prolem is that of an earlobe that is too big and out of proportion to the rest of the face.
In my experience an overly large ear lobe is often a result of years of wearing heavy ear rings which stretch the ear lobe tissue gradually over time. In today's case study we'll look at a young male patient who has naturally large ear lobes that hang lower than ideal onto his cheek. Here are some oblique views showing our starting point.
You can see how his earlobes are somewhat more voluminous than ideal and also extend fairly low down onto his cheek. The remainder of his auricle is actually fairly small making his earlobe size stand out more.
The first step in achieving our goal of make the ear lobes less big is to remove a full thickness wedge of ear lobe tissue from both ears. Here are the markings showing the planned incision placement for the right ear along with a hash mark denoting the desired new ear lobe insertion point:
The markings are made prior to injecting local numbing medication. Here are the similar markings for the left ear:
Once the incisions are made the free edge of the ear lobe is then sutured to the cheek at the higher point as marked. The resulting residual wound below that is then closed on itself with several layers of sutures using a V-Y advancement technique.
You can see the initial 2.5 month after results from the surgery on for the right ear here. It is important to realize that the incision below the ear lobe is still somewhat raised at this early stage in healing and would be expected to gradually flatten over the first 12 to 18 months after surgery:
You can see the similarly improved ear lobe size and position for the left ear here:
More importantly, when looking at the patient full face you can see how his ear lobes blend more seamlessly and appear more proportional to the rest of his facial features.
You can check out additional before and after photo angles of this patient's ear lobe reduction surgery results here.
