Otoplasty

Over the past several years, my practice has seen a huge increase in the number of patients seeking corrective plastic surgery for gauge earring defects. These patients have all had prior piercings with use of gauges that have stretched the earlobes to a variable degree. Once they stop using the…

Many ear pinning patients wonder what the ears may look like in the early healing process after otoplasty surgery. So I decided to post this blog to give those a visual idea of what to expect in the average case. As I discuss with all my cosmetic ear pinning patients,…

Learn how I can actually make your ear smaller using scapha reduction technique for macrotia - also known as excessively large ears. This type of ear plastic surgery is much different from ear pinning surgery, which is intended to simply pull the ears back closer to the surface of the…

Learn more about suture reshaping of the ear in this latest addition to our otoplasty discussion page. This case example focuses on use of Mustarde suture technique - a specific method that can be used to cosmetically reshape the overly prominent ear in otoplasty patients. See for yourself why our…

During many of my otoplasty (cosmetic ear reshaping) consultations in my San Diego, CA office, patients commonly ask about the incision placement. Obviously, one of the concerns when undergoing cosmetic ear surgery is the visibility of scarring. Fortunately, I happen to use an otoplasty technique where my incisions are kept…

Recently, the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) released statistics revealing that 30,358 otoplasty procedures were performed across the United States in 2012, making ear surgery the 10th most popular cosmetic surgery performed last year. In light of the procedure’s popularity, we sat down with our double-board-certified facial plastic…

This very pleasant young man was just seen in follow-up today following ear pinning surgery to correct overly prominent ears. As you can see from his before photos, his ears were developed such that they stuck out too far from the side of the head. In fact, his ears nearly…

This is another great example of what gauge earring (gauge piercing) repair surgery can look like. This patient from San Diego, CA desired to have her gauge piercings repaired to make the earlobe appear more natural looking. I performed her surgery under local anesthesia, which took about 1.5 hours altogether.…

This case example highlights a very common problem that is seen in our office - keloid scarring of the ear following piercing. This particular female from San Diego sought out our services because she developed a very unsightly scar on her ear after piercing it several years ago. This type…

With an increasing number of patients requesting repair of gauged earring holes, we have just added a new page to our growing plastic surgery website that focuses on the nuances of how the earlobe is repaired following gauge piercings. We hope this proves helpful to those prospective patients out there…