What's involved in a Gauged Earlobe Repair?

So you used to have ear gauges and now feel like you’ve outgrown them or don’t want them anymore.  What do your earlobes look like?

Often they look similar to this:

Stretched out, sagging, floppy skin.  Over time, the ear gauges have changed the structure of your earlobe, and the skin cannot shrink back into place.

So how can we reconstruct the earlobe to a more natural appearance?

This is definitely a new trend in facial plastic surgery, and more and more information can be found on the internet.  The TV show “The Doctors” recently showed a before and after example of this procedure.  Remember, however, that not all gauged earlobe reconstructions are created equal.  A wide variety of techniques can be used.  I feel, however, that only a couple of techniques are best at giving you the most natural result possible, while still hiding the incisions well.  This procedure is not simply cutting off extra skin and suturing the rest back together.

With the technique I use, some skin may or may not need to be removed.  This is based entirely on how stretched out your earlobe is.  My general rule is to conserve as much skin as possible.  I will reposition skin before cutting it off.  Next, the area just above the earlobe (the soft spot you can feel directly below where the ear cartilage starts) often needs to be repositioned to better recreate the upper edge of the earlobe.  Finally, suturing of the earlobe must be done very carefully to both hide the incisions along the natural curvature of the ear and avoid “notching.”  Notching is an indention along the outer edge or rim of your earlobe.  A notch looks as though you have a slice or cut right through the bottom of your ear.   A good facial plastic surgeon who has performed a lot of ear surgery can avoid notching by using specific suturing techniques. 

In the end, you will regain your natural earlobe contour without any obvious or funky scars.  You can even re-pierce your ears after about 2 months, though I would recommend avoiding any future ear gauges.

Come to Sierra Nevada Cosmetic and Laser Surgery for a free consultation, take a look at some before and after photos, and discuss with me which technique is best for your ears.

Here’s to the beautiful human face,

-Dr. Yamamoto