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What to Expect With Earlobe Repair Surgery

Earrings are a fun way to express your individuality, personality, and taste, but over time, a pierced earlobe can stretch if you frequently wear large or heavy earrings. In addition to making the piercing longer or wider, earrings can also tear completely through your earlobes, leaving them split. Torn earlobes can result from trauma, such as having an earring pulled out of your earlobe or caught on an item of clothing.

Dr. W. Marshall Guy is a board-certified facial plastic surgeon in The Woodlands, TX, who provides earlobe repair surgery with a quick in-office procedure, performed under local anesthesia.

What Concerns Can Earlobe Repair Address?

Fashion trends and your sense of style can change like the seasons, but your skin doesn’t get the memo. There are generally two causes of earlobe damage: trauma and stretching.

Trauma is often the result of wearing oversized, heavy “statement” earrings. Your earring may have gotten snagged in your hairbrush or a sweater you took off. Or, maybe you picked up a small child who grabbed at your earring or pulled it off. In extreme cases, your jewelry can tear right through the thin skin on the bottom of your earlobe.

Current earring styles are dramatic, not understated. Unfortunately, wearing these heavier and wider pieces isn’t good for your skin, as they pull down and enlarge the original piercing so much that it becomes visible to others.

Earrings are also growing in diameter, and gauges are the ultimate example of this trend. People who wear ear gauges gradually and deliberately stretch their lobes by wearing increasingly larger diameters. If left in place for long enough, gauges create holes that cannot close on their own. If you want to reverse the effects of enlarged, stretched earlobes, you will need surgery.

What Are the Benefits of Having Earlobe Repair Surgery?

When you have a large hole or unhealed tear in your earlobe, it can be a distraction for people when they’re talking to you. It can also limit your jewelry choices or prevent you from wearing earrings at all.

You may be surprised to learn that earlobe repair is a quick, straightforward procedure. Dr. Guy uses his board-certified surgical skills to repair the damaged earlobe, and the results of his handiwork are nearly invisible when fully healed.

What to Expect From Earlobe Repair Surgery

Torn earlobe repair first involves “refreshing” the edges of the torn lobe by removing a small amount of skin. Then, using fine sutures, Dr. Guy meticulously restores the earlobe’s appearance to match your ear’s natural shape of your ear.

You can return home immediately after your procedure, with only a small bandage to protect the stitches around your earlobe. You will have your stitches removed after one to two weeks. Once your earlobe has healed and the scar has softened, you may choose to re-pierce the repaired earlobe if you choose, though it may take up to three months for your earlobe to heal fully.

Schedule Your Earlobe Repair Surgery With Dr. Guy Facial Plastic Surgery

Don’t let your self-esteem issues about your ears affect your quality of life. If you are interested in learning more about our earlobe repair surgery, call (832) 956-1040 today to schedule your consultation with Dr. Guy.