Beautiful ears allow women to display earrings and highlight a long neck, while men can flaunt the latest haircut and sideburn style. Children and adults go to great lengths to hide imperfect ears with hairstyle or hats. Fortunately, ear plastic and esthetic surgery is possible.
Dr. Amanda Fanous is passionate about ear surgery. She trained with the renowned surgeon Dr. Françoise Firmin in Paris, France. Dr. Firmin is widely considered as one of the leading world authorities in esthetic ear surgery and ear reconstruction (for congenitally small ears such as microtia or ear deformities following trauma or cancer). Dr. Amanda Fanous performs the Firmin techniques for all of her ear procedures.
Prominent ears are ears that stick out of the head. This can lead to psychological distress for both children and adults.
Otoplasty, commonly referred to as ear pinning, is a surgical procedure performed to set the ears back closer to the head. This is done through an incision on the back of the ear (and therefore hidden). Dr. Amanda Fanous uses the Firmin otoplasty technique, which consists of weakening the ear cartilage (the support of the ear) and then placing sutures to fold the ear and pull it back in place.
In Quebec, otoplasty is completely covered by medicare for all patients under the age of 18 years old. Generally, children going for surgery should be at least 6 years-of-age or older, at which time the ear would have almost reached its adult size. This would also allow the child to be actively engaged in the decision-making and recovery process.
Dr. Amanda Fanous sees these children for consultation at her office and then operates on them in the hospital. The surgery takes approximately 2 hours and is done under general anesthesia. The children arrive at the hospital the morning of the surgery and leave a few hours after the procedure with a light headband. Pain, swelling and bruising can occur but are usually minimal. The children are then seen in clinic 1 week after surgery.
For patients over the age of 18, the surgery is considered a cosmetic procedure. In this case, the surgery is performed in our accredited surgical center under local anesthesia with intravenous sedation.
The ear lobe is the lower portion of the ear, where earrings are worn. A simple surgery can be performed to reduce the size of a big or hanging lobe to make it look younger. Also, a large lobe hole from a previous piercing can be closed. Furthermore, ear lobes that are stuck or attached to the head from birth or from a previous surgery can be reshaped to look more attractive.
Large ears are common, especially amongst adult men. This refers to ears that have a marked height, with or without them also sticking out from the head. Dr. Amanda Fanous performs the “Firmin technique”, a customized surgical innovation tailored to each individual patient in order to make the ears smaller overall and more appealing.
Ear defects can be the result of congenital hypoplasias (meaning from birth such as microtia), trauma, cancer excision or complications from a previous otoplasty surgery to correct prominent ears. Regardless of the cause, reconstructing partial or total ear defects requires an experienced surgeon with a detailed knowledge of the three-dimensional morphology of the ear.
Reconstructing an ear usually requires the harvest of cartilage grafts. Small ear defects can occasionally be corrected without grafts, or with cartilage taken from the bowl of the ear (conchal cartilage). However, large defects require rib cartilage (costal cartilage), taken from a small incision on the chest.
Ear reconstructions using rib cartilage are performed under general anesthesia. Some can be performed in a single stage but most are performed in two stages spaced 6 to 12 months apart.
The first surgery takes about 4 to 6 hours. It consists of harvesting rib cartilage, which is then carved to reproduce a detailed ear structure. The sculpture is then placed in a pocket under the skin.
The second surgery, performed 6 to 12 months later, takes about 2 to 3 hours. It serves to make the ear stand out from the head, thus creating a groove behind the ear to allow the patient to wear glasses and tuck hair.
The clinicOur Montreal clinic is housed in a state of the art building that was custom designed to function as a modern medical centre for cosmetic surgery with the most advanced equipment available. The architecture was specially developed to take into account every single component that improves patient care. We researched and implemented every recommendation that improves patient outcomes with the goal of creating the best plastic surgery clinic in Canada.
