What to Expect in an Otoplasty Surgery
Otoplasty is one surgical procedure that is not as gruesome compared to other procedure. It is also safer and more surgeons are capable of doing this as it has become a common procedure and easily help a person restore self-confidence. So whether it is for the complicated reason of congenital defects or a simple pinning at the back of the head, the cosmetic surgery prices that you will spend will just be worth it.
During the surgery, a local anesthesia will be given to the patient. It will desensitize particularly the ears and the area around it. However, children are given the general anesthesia since they will not be able to tolerate pain the same way adults do. Then depending on the condition of the ears, one or more incisions may be done to correct it. However, with reconstruction, more work is needed to be done. Cartilages may be taken from other parts of the body to create the missing ear parts or prosthesis may be used to build new ears. There are also times that incisions are not required and a needle is sufficient enough to be used to reshape the cartilage. You can see otoplasty before and after photos to understand the results better.
After that, if incisions are made, dissolvable sutures will be used to close the wounds and a protective dressing will be place around the head to protect the newly operated ears. Usually an otoplasty is an outpatient procedure, however, a patient may be required to stay in the hospital overnight or maybe longer depending on the degree of surgery made. If only pinning of the ears was done then a patient may be discharged a few hours after the procedure. While if the ears was reconstructed and cartilages were taken from other parts of the body, he or she may need to stay a few days in the hospital. This is to allow the surgeon to monitor if the surgery went well and no infection, fluid or blood has buildup in the ears.
Otoplasty procedure can be done is as little as one hour for simple ear pinning while reconstruction may take a couple of hours. However, if you were able to find an expert surgeon, expect that after the procedure you will anymore not have ears that are the reason of your loneliness and low morale.
