Before Surgery

Dr. Bentkover will review the patient's medical history and carefully examine the outer ear and ear canal. He will show you photos of previous patients and explain the technique.

Our staff will give you specific instructions on how to prepare for surgery, including guidelines on eating and drinking, smoking, and medications. If you smoke, he will ask you to quit for at least two weeks before and after your surgery, since smoking may have an effect on how well you heal. You must stop all anticoagulant medications or herbal preparations, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, vitamin E, St. John's Wart, gingko, garlic or ginseng 2 weeks prior to surgery. You may be required to take antibiotics to prevent infection. You should shampoo your hair the night before surgery.

The Technique

Since this operation is most commonly done on children and teenagers, it is usually done under general anesthesia. Adults however, can sometimes have the operation with just local anesthesia in our office operating room. An incision is made in the crease behind the ear, and cartilage is reshaped and shaved as needed with special instruments and permanent sutures. The operation takes a little over 2 hours for two ears.

Recovery: What to Expect

Your ears will be wrapped in a protective bandage for 2-4 days. After the bandages are removed, you will need to be careful that no one hits you in the ears. For this reason, in the summer we may ask you to stay out of a pool for a couple of weeks. We are afraid of someone's foot kicking you in the ears. The ears can be fairly uncomfortable for the first week, but the discomfort is generally well managed with prescribed pain medication. Most of the swelling and redness is gone from the skin in three weeks, but some degree of swelling may persist for even up to 6 months. The ears will feel stiffer after surgery since the sutures actually strengthen the structure of the ear. Complications are very rare but can include bleeding, infection, and loss of skin in areas of the ear where the skin is very thin. We usually can get the ears to look very similar to each other at the end of the case, but no physician can guarantee perfect symmetry

Insurance

Insurance companies rarely cover this operation. Some will cover it if a child has a documented mental health evaluation that shows the child is being adversely affected by ridicule. You should check with your insurance company before seeing us.