Here we share another case of ear reduction surgery performed by one of the best cosmetic ear surgeons in the country, Dr. John Hilinski. This young lady flew all the way from Florida to California in order to have Dr. Hilinski make her ears smaller in size. Over a decade ago, she had a different plastic surgeon try and reshape her ears using classic otoplasty, or ear pinning, techniques. Unfortunately, her ears needed more than just pinning them back closer to the side of the head. What she really needed was to have the ears reshaped so they were smaller in size. But, like so many patients who fly to San Diego to consult with Dr. Hilinski, she went to a plastic surgeon who was not fully aware of ear reduction surgery techniques. She was then left unhappy with the outcome of her prior ear surgery. Mainly, she was concerned about the top portion of the ear still looking too large. If you look closely, her ear had too much contour along the upper half – almost appearing like a shell as extended too far up and back. In addition, her helical crus was left abnormally prominent.
Dr. Hilinski ended up performing macrotia surgery – or more commonly, ear reduction surgery – to try and give her ears a more normal size and shape. This included taking away the excess ear cartilage and skin at the top. In addition, in an attempt to make the ear look even smaller, he reduced the size of the earlobe. Finally, he helped reduce the prominent helical crus cartilage ridge by taking down the profile of this area. The end result is shown here in terms of how the ear looked immediately after macrotia surgery while still on the operating room table. As you can readily see, her ear is now a normal shape with a smaller size!