Otoplasty (Ear Surgery) for Adults

Dr. DeBusk (00:08):
Welcome back to Behind the Double Doors. I'm Dr. Taylor DeBusk. Today on the podcast, we'll answer all your questions about otoplasty for adults. So some people may not have an otoplasty early in life or have to wait until they're adult for many reasons. One is financial, but another is people aren't aware of the options as kids, their parents may not be aware. There's a lot of parents that are obviously super busy, work nine to five jobs and aren't doing the research or aware of the options for their kids to have surgery for the ears. Or some kids may not necessarily really be concerned about the shape of their ear, and it affects them as they get older and become an adult. And I would say that there's many reasons why, but I think lack of knowledge or lack of the awareness that there are procedures to change the shape of the ear, I think is the most common.

(01:03):
Otoplasty for adults and for children are roughly the same thing. The size of the patient's ear or a person's ear is pretty much 80% grown or 80% of that of an adult ear by the age of five years old. So the ear develops and matures relatively quickly relative to the rest of the body. Otoplasty is just a general term for surgical techniques to change the shape of the ear. When we look at the ear, it's very complex and people don't really realize how complex the ear is until you start to really look at it and study it. But there's a lot of convexity, concavities, cartilage has a lot of memory, and it's really hard and difficult to recreate that memory because of the natural bends in the cartilage. But when we look at otoplasty, two of the most common reasons that otoplasty are done is one, to create what's called the antihelical fold or to create a cartilage fold in the ear.

(02:04):
And then two is to basically set the ear back, commonly known as ear pinning. There's two different techniques to address those two different things, but in general, those are the more common approaches or the more common changes that are done in otoplasty. With adults, oftentimes we do it under local anesthesia, so we'll do it kind of in the office, numb up the ear. The surgery is relatively simple, or you remove a small amount of skin behind the ear. We place typically three to four non dissolvable stitches to create the fold that we're trying to create, as well as to set the ear back to give it a normal projection or make sure that it sticks out in appropriate amount from the side of the head. But it's relatively simple and the techniques have been around for a long time. They've really been perfected within the recent history, but it is a very old, but very good, very effective procedure for patients.

(03:03):
So general anesthesia for otoplasty is really dependent upon the patient. Some patients are very nervous. They don't like to be awake. They may have some sort of adverse reaction to local anesthesia, or maybe they just prefer general anesthesia. But typically for routine otoplasty, most patients are okay undergoing it with just your normal local anesthesia like Lidocaine or Novocaine, what people typically experience at the dentist. Regardless of whether or not we use general anesthesia or local anesthesia, we always do the procedure in the operating room, mainly because that's where we have all of our tools. That's where the environment is optimized for patient care and it's easier for the patient, easier for us to do it in the operating room. So the surgery can take one to three hours. It really depends on what we're trying to do, whether we're trying to recreate folds, set the ear back, do both if we're doing one ear or if we're doing two ears, it just varies.

(04:04):
If we do both ears, I say it takes a little bit longer, mainly because we scrutinize to try and achieve perfect symmetry between both ears. So again, usually between one and three hours, but it depends on what we're trying to achieve. The results with otoplasty are immediate, so you get to see what your ear is going to look like long term as soon as the procedure is done. Now granted, we did make incisions in the ear, we did inject local anesthesia, so the ear is a little bit swollen, but the general shape is noticeable immediately. Once the procedure is complete, all the sutures are placed. We do give you a mirror, so you get to see right away what your ear looks like. Then after that, we put padding around the ear and then a little head wrap that we keep in place for about 48 hours.

(04:48):
We'll see you back in the office two days after the surgery, two to three days, and then take the head wrap off, make sure everything's looking good, skin looks good. After that, you just wear a normal sweat band around the ears just to keep them in the position that we want to keep them, and you wear that for about another week, and that is about it. Obviously, we don't want anybody to be in pain after any procedure. This is a relatively straightforward, relatively painless procedure. Most people only need over-the-counter medications like Tylenol and Ibuprofen, because all we're really doing is removing skin and then throwing a couple stitches in cartilage. Most people don't really have much discomfort after surgery. The one thing people notice is when they go to sleep, that's when their ears are a little tender. They lay on the ear, they have a little bit discomfort.

(05:36):
Most people are able to combat that with just some Tylenol and ibuprofen. We will prescribe some low dose narcotics just to really help maximize people's comfort, specifically at night. But typically, it's a very easy recovery with minimal to no pain. After about five to seven days, most people don't need anything, any over the counters or anything. Typically, I don't want people really manipulating the ear itself, wearing big headphones or wearing a swim cap or anything like that for about four weeks after surgery. So hats are typically okay, unless the hats are resting on the ear, as long as it's just on the crown or the top of the head. By about four weeks, the healing process, you're about 30 to 50% of the way done from a strength of tissue standpoint. So at that time, one month after surgery, I'm okay with people kind of going back to a hundred percent of their normal daily routine.

(06:29):
Typically one week after surgery, any procedure, I want people to just take it easy. No gym, get up, walk around. Obviously you need to go outside to stay sane, but no high intense cardio, no heavy lifting. Two weeks after surgery, I'm okay with people kind of starting to get their heart rate up, kind of get back to some physical activity, but only go about 25 to 50% of your normal activity. And then once you hit your third week, I'm okay with you going back to the gym a hundred percent. So surgery consultation for an otoplasty in an adult is, it's relatively straightforward. Obviously, we want to make sure that you're a healthy patient, healthy person, not taking any medications that would contraindicate you for surgery, such as blood thinners or have any sort of comorbidities that put you at increased risk. But typically, we look at the ear, I show them the types of changes that can be made by just pushing the ear back, and it's very dramatic.

(07:27):
It's interesting because not everybody knows what an otoplasty is or what type of results you can achieve. So by just slightly manipulating the ear and showing them what we can do, it's so gratifying to see the patient's response and how happy and how excited they become when we show them the realistic goals or the realistic changes that we can make. So with Otoplasty, typically it is cosmetic, so we don't really get, insurance doesn't really reimburse for otoplasty surgery, but the range of costs is usually about 3000 to $8,000 for otoplasty surgery. And there's a lot of different factors that influence the overall cost, whether it's one ear, both ears, whether it's under local anesthesia or general anesthesia, whether we're just doing, recreating folds or setting the year back. There's a lot of different things that can increase the length of time of the procedure. So all those are factors that influence the price, but typically around three to $8,000 is what people can expect to pay.

(08:28):
So most patients, again, do it under local anesthesia, so at the end of the surgery, I give them a mirror so they can see the shape of the ear. And even though it's a little swollen because of the surgery and the local anesthesia that's injected, everybody is just so overly excited with the immediate changes that they can see and how they have a normal contour and it's something that they've been wanting to do their whole life. They finally have it done, and it's so rewarding to see their excitement. So the first step to schedule a consultation with me for an otoplasty here at Basu Plastic Surgery is to, you can reach out to us via phone, go to our website. We have a phone number listed on our website. You could send us a DM or message through or social media outlets such as Instagram, but most people give us a call and schedule the consultation over the phone and can ask specifically about Otoplasty. And our patient care coordinators are phenomenal in giving them a lot of specific information before they even step foot in our door before the day of the consultation.

Announcer (09:36):
Basu Aesthetics and Plastic Surgery is located in Northwest Houston in the Towne Lake area of Cypress. If you'd like to be a guest or ask a question for Dr. Basu to answer on the podcast, go to basu plastic surgery.com/podcast. On Instagram, follow Dr. Basu and the team at Basu Plastic Surgery. That's B-A-S-U Plastic Surgery. Behind the Double Doors is a production of The Axis, T-H-E-A-X-I-S. io.