Aurora Clinics Blog » Ear Surgery

Can my 14mm stretched ears heal by themselves?

Donna — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:41:22 +0000

The New Year is a great time to think about making positive changes for a New You. One cosmetic surgery treatment which always increases in popularity at the start of the New Year is Earlobe Repair: people with stretched or split earlobes from flesh tunnels, plugs and gauges decide to get rid of the signs of a wilder past. They sometimes feel these hold them back during job interviews, socially and just don’t fit their more mature image. Read our FAQ about Earlobe Repair…

Question :

In the past I had my ear stretched to 14mm but then downsized, and went to 12.5mm then back again to 6mm. I want to take my ear plugs (flesh tunnels) out, but was wondering if I will need to have earlobe repair reconstruction surgery if I do so?

I have blowouts in both ears which are now looking rather unsightly. Would I be better off just getting them sewn shut and removing the blowouts? Or would you advise that I remove the blowouts and let them shrink to the point where I can add ordinary earrings?

Answer :

Thank you for your enquiry.

We would recommend that you completely remove everything from your ears for three months. This will allow the natural tissues to shrink and it is possible that your holes will close to a diameter that you are happy with.

If not, it is possible to perform earlobe repair surgery to rectify the stretched ear. This is relatively easy and quick (performed under local anaesthetic as a day patient) and leaves little scarring.

We hope that this information has been helpful. We do have a designated page on our website about earlobe repair surgery so suggest that you read this for further information and to view earlobe repair videos and photographs.

If your earlobes are still stretched after you have removed everything, please call our office on 0800 328 5743 where we will be happy to discuss possible earlobe repair surgery with you.

Best Wishes

The Team at Aurora Clinics

Aurora Clinics April 2011 Newsletter

catherine — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:21:42 +0000

Newsletter in Brief

Mole Removal: Look Great & Stay Skin Cancer Safe Read more…

Semi Permanent Make-up with Pauline Kneller Read More…

Tribal Ear Piercing Correction at Aurora
Read more..

Spring Special Offer on Sun-care
Read more..

This months video – Mole Removal.

Mole Removal at Aurora: Look Great & Stay Skin Cancer Safe

Private Healthcare UK recently reported a surge in men and women requesting mole removal procedures. This is certainly true for Aurora Clinics. Now we are into April, it is time to start being even more “skin-savvy” and be aware of the effect the sunnier weather could have on your body. Whilst mole removal procedures are often performed for aesthetic reasons – if a mole looks unsightly or is raised and catches on clothing – Aurora also offers a Histology Report service to mole removal patients. This involves sending your mole specimen sample to the Laboratory to test for skin cancer or other abnormal cells. By having your mole removed at Aurora, therefore, you not only benefit from great minimal-scarring results by our expert surgeons and same-day procedures under local anaesthetic with minimal waiting lists: you also have the peace of mind of knowing that you can catch any skin cancer if it is present, giving yourself the very best chance to treat it.

For a FREE consultation with a Plastic Surgeon or Dermatologist to advise on the most suitable treatment for your moles, call us on 01844 214 362 or use our online contact form.

Semi Permanent Make-Up Comes to Aurora
If you are considering enhancing the natural beauty of your facial features, Aurora has another non-surgical option: semi permanent make-up. We are delighted to welcome Pauline Kneller to Aurora Clinics. With over eight years of experience working alongside some top make-up technicians, Pauline offers a great range of treatments:

Eyeliner
Eyebrows
Lip Body (Blush or Full Colour)
Lip Liner
Beauty spots and freckles

She is also skilled in medical Micropigmentation to disguise and improve scarring, burns, stretch marks and reconstruct areolas or nipples following trauma or Breast Cancer (look out for our Blog all about Medical Tattooing, coming soon).

Semi permanent make-up has lots of advantages: it is long-lasting (fading naturally over approximately 18 months); comes in a huge range of colours; is great for people with a hectic lifestyle who do not have time to be applying make-up / those who are allergic to certain cosmetics; it can be used to correct asymmetrical features and to reconstruct and camouflage. Pauline’s focus is on creating a very natural look which is not “drawn on” but tattooed with a needle. She assures us, however, that it is not as uncomfortable as regular tattooing and you can expect to be completely healed and looking gorgeous within 5-7 days.

To book an appointment with Pauline Kneller at Aurora Clinics, call us on 01844 214 362.

Tribal Ear Piercings? We can get you out of a Hole.
Adrian Richards at Aurora Clinics has seen increasing numbers of patients wanting to reconstruct holes left in their earlobes by Tribal ear piercings.

The process of dilating holes in the earlobes as wide as possible to insert Flesh Tunnels and Plugs has become fashionable amongst some social circles, particularly older teens and University students. As with many fashions linked to a particular time and social group, the owners of these ear piercings often grow to regret having them, feeling that they no longer fit their image years later. One recent Aurora patient told how his Tribal piercings put employers off when attending job interviews and he felt the Flesh Tunnels were a link back to a period of his life he had left behind.

Luckily, Aurora’s Mr Adrian Richards is an expert at such ear corrections. At the Whitethorn Clinic in Buckinghamshire, Mr Richards can remove the hole and reconstruct the earlobe, leaving only minimal scarring which will fade over time. A video of this procedure can be seen on our website. The cost for the procedure is from £800-£1800, depending upon the dilation of the piercing and whether you have both ears or only one stretched. This price reflects the fact that the procedure is quite a complex reconstruction, but one which allows patients to move on with their lives and leave their pasts – and their piercings! – behind.

For more information on any form of Ear Correction, or a FREE consultation at Aurora Clinics, please call one of our friendly patient coordinators on 01844 214 362.

Spring Special Offer on Suncare
Spring is in the air (finally)! But have you got your Sunscreen ready now that the weather promises to get warmer and Summer Holidays are yours for the taking?

We are offering a bargain: spf30 Intelligent Sunscreen Zinc Body Cream* just £5 when you buy bareMinerals spf30 Natural sunscreen for Face&Body* £15. That’s only £20 for both (normal rrp. £60 the pair)! Intelligent Sunscreen is ideal for everybody and everyday use, with no irritants or fragrance, just moisturisers and soothing agents to keep your skin protected and supple. bareMinerals Natural sunscreen is a revolutionary flow-through brush which buffs sunscreen minerals evenly for sun protection without the heavy, greasy finish. Order yours today via 01844 214 362 or pop into The Paddocks Clinic.

*just slightly past ideal sell-by date

Video response to “Earlobe repair following earlobe stretching”

catherine — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 12:02:24 +0000

Patients video testimonial to Earlobe repair following earlobe stretching for Aurora-Clinics.

julian123411

1 month ago

This is me, I can not thank the team enough for this, they have done a amazing job, if you need this done do not go anywhere else 5 stars

Prominent Ear Correction

catherine — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:44:55 +0000

Hello, my name’s Adrian Richards, I’m a consultant plastic and cosmetic surgeon and today I’m going to be talking through an operation I did on this young lady with prominent ears on both sides.

As you can see, the ear is of normal height but the antihelical fold hasn’t formed very well. Here I’m just demonstrating the antihelical fold, you can see that’s the fold that should be created in the ear and when it doesn’t form, the ear becomes prominent. I’m just marking the antihelical fold here with the patient asleep and the posterior line there is where I’m going to insert my stitches. I’m just also marking the skin on the back of the ear. The whole operation’s done with an incision on the back of the ear with absolutely no incisions on the front of the ear. Next stage is to insert local anaesthetic in the skin of the ear, some people choose to have this operation done purely under local anaesthetic, some people, as in this case, choose to have general anaesthetic to cover it. But it’s important anyway to have local anaesthetic for post operative pain relief. Here I am just removing the slither of skin with electro diathermy which controls the bleeding. I only remove a very small slither of skin because it’s not the skin that controls the shape of the ear, it’s the underlying cartilage that we need to control. So here I am just completing the skin excision with my electrocautery, just to the end there.

The next stage is to create a fascial flap and this is a flap I use to cover up the stitches. So here you can see I’m just removing a layer of tissue from the back of the cartilage and here’s my flap that I’ve created and I’m going to use this to cover the stitches. This is a very important stage, I place a needle through the cartilage on both sides, in four areas and this shows me exactly where I want to place my stitches. Here I am placing a stitch, I use four non absorbable stitches in the back of the ear, here’s the middle one going in and that just controls the ear and holds it back in place nicely. Here are the four stitches that are placed and you can see that’s controlled the antihelix quite well and those are the positions of the stitches. The next stage is to sew the skin up, here I am doing that with an absorbable vicryl stitch which doesn’t need to be removed. So you can see the ear is nicely controlled her and nice and stable and the skin on the back is sewn up neatly with that stitch that won’t need to be removed.

The next stage is to just secure the ear with a tissue glue so I place that between the skin and the ear and the reason for this is to just hold the ear in place during the healing period. So I tend to put a bandage on, we put a bandage on nowadays for much less time than previously and typically I’ll leave this on for three to four days. So here we are before the operation, you can see poorly developed antihelical fold with a prominent ear on this side, very similar on the other left side as well. This is it straight after the operation, this is five days following the operation and when I’ve removed the dressing. You can see with this posterior only technique, very little bruising normally occurs and a very good result with minimum down time.

So thank you very much for watching this video, I hope you’ve found it useful, if you’d like to contact us to talk about any procedure, please do so by contacting us via the Aurora Clinic’s website or by phoning us. Thank you very much for listening and we look forward to seeing you soon.