Question:
I’ve been looking into ear surgery for my seven-year-old son. I understand that fixing his ears now could be really good for him, but at the same time the thought of electing surgery for my child is really difficult. What sort of concerns or considerations are there for performing this surgery on children? Also, my son’s ears are generally large and stick out from his head, but would he ever grow into them?
Answer:
Fixing a child’s ears can be a difficult one. The parent has to balance the risk with the reward of improvement in the child’s appearance and the benefits that follow. Unfortunately, children can be cruel in this world and with significantly prominent ears the child will likely experience this. Setting the ears back can avoid this trauma. The procedure is very safe, but it does have the usual surgical risks from anesthesia as well as the possibility of infection, bleeding, scarring asymmetry of the ears and others. Luckily these complications are rare and the surgery is very successful. If it were my child, I would probably wait and see if they were going to be affected by teasing and if so ask them if they would like to change their ears. If so then consideration of surgery and with a qualified surgeon may be warranted.
Posted by Dr. Buckingham
