Some patients who come to our office to have their ears made smaller in size also note other cosmetic issues they would like addressed. This is an example of just that – a patient who had very abnormally shaped ears. Believe it or not, her ears were congenitally misshapen – meaning, she was born like this. One of her main issues was the fact the top part of the ear (the scapha) was too large. This is the macrotia condition that Dr. Hilinski so often repairs.
In addition, though, this patient had overly prominent antihelix contours. The antihelix is the natural ridge of the ear that runs vertically alongside the helix (the outer margin of the ear). In most cases, the antihelix ridge is not so prominent. In this particular case, her antihelix was so prominent you could really see it quite readily when looking from the frontal view. This is shown in the adjacent preoperative photo where you can see that her scapha is overly developed along the top portion of the ear. But you can also readily see how the antihelix ridge is also excessively prominent sticking out to the side (white arrows).
Normally, this ridge of cartilage (the antihelix ridge) is not so prominent. In fact, the helical rim should normally been seen just to the outside of the antihelix when looking at the ear from the frontal view. In other words, you should be able to follow most of the border of the helical rim from the top of the ear to the bottom when viewing the ear from the front. In this case, her antihelix was so prominent that it stuck out laterally way beyond the helical rim.
So what do you do for this problem? Can you reshape the prominent helical rim at the same time macrotia surgery is being performed? The answer is – yes. While performing macrotia ear reduction surgery, the helical rim can be reshaped to make it less prominent. However, you have to keep in mind that the antihelix does contribute significantly to the overall shape of the ear. Therefore, you have to be careful you do not ‘destablize’ the framework of the ear when reshaping the antihelix in conjunction with scapha reduction surgery.
Macrotia & Antihelix Surgery
Shown here is the very early postoperative result from the patient shown above. Like many of Dr. Hilinski’s macrotia surgery patients, this one lived outside of San Diego and flew into town to have her surgery performed.
The main effort was to make the ear smaller in size from top to bottom. This is the traditional macrotia ear reduction surgery that is offered exclusively by Dr. Hilinski for patients who have ears that are simply too large. In this particular case, Dr. Hilinski also made an effort to try and reduce the antihelix ridge in the process of scapha reduction. This is not normally included in scapha ear surgery, but Dr. Hilinski simply wanted to try and make her ears look better overall in the process of making them smaller.
Here she is just 4 days out from ear reduction surgery. You can readily appreciate the ears are still quite discolored and inflamed from the surgery that was just performed. But even this early on in the healing process, you can also note how much improvement there has been in the size and shape of her ears. For example, her ears are clearly smaller in size from top to bottom. Plus, the curvature and shape of the ear has been drastically improved. These changes are a direct result of the macrotia surgery.
Additionally, her antihelix prominence was also reduced. Although Dr. Hilinski would have liked to make it even less prominent, a substantial change was able to be made in combination with the scapha reshaping without destablizing the ear. Plus, she is still quite swollen in these photos taken so soon after surgery. In the coming weeks to months she should see further improvements in the size and shape of the ears.
Get Your Smaller Ears
If you have large ears and wish to make them smaller in size, contact the designer ear specialist, Dr. John Hilinski, for a complimentary consultation regarding ear reduction surgery. Dr. Hilinski is considered a world-class expert when it comes to making large ears smaller in size.