Surgery to rectify Earlobes

Shimmering chandelier earrings (Credit: Scorps)

Veronica Rogers loved wearing dangling earrings - Shimmering chandelier earrings that tinkled like little wind chimes; heavy silver and gold hoops that glinted in the sun; big sun-catcher earrings that glittered and shimmered in the light. But after donning heavy earrings for decades, the holes in her ears stretched so low hat her earlobes were almost ripped in two. Veronica stopped wearing earrings for several years and then decided to get the problem fixed.

She had earlobe repair surgery—a minor plastic surgery procedure completed under local anesthesia. A doctor repaired the ripped earring holes and about six weeks later re-pierced them. Today, she wears both small studs and chandelier earrings and says she feels confident about her ears.

In today’s nip-and-tuck culture, ears that sag and wrinkle or stick out too far are becoming more common complaints as well.

Dermatologists and plastic surgeons are doing several procedures that focus on the ear. They include surgeries to repair elongated holes, contour stretched lobes and pin back protruding ears.

Some plastic surgeons believe that as a person grows older, the weight of earrings or an accidental trauma will lengthen the earlobe or tear it through. But some doctors say earlobe stretching has nothing to do with the earrings themselves. As people get older, their earlobes naturally get longer. Sometimes long earlobes are also influenced by genes.