Congenital (By birth) ear deformities are common and most of the parents are unaware what to do?
Who to see and how to deal with the structural and hearing problem of the their child.
The answer is very simple.
You should see a Plastic surgeon who is trained in dealing with these kind of problems also refer as ear reconstructive or microtia surgeon and an ENT doctor for the hearing concerns weather you child has any hearing problem or not?
The congenital ear deformities has a long list of the defects starting from the simple as folded ear (lop ear, constricted ear, cup ear ) to more complex ear problems like microtia and anotia (no ear). Any kind of ear anomaly a plastic surgeon who is trained in ear reconstruction is the best person you must visit and discuss regarding your child issues.
If we see a kid with in 3 months of the birth and he or she is having some kind of folded ear (lop ear, constricted ear, cup ear), stahl’s ear, prominent ear (stuck out) we can help you with non surgical intervention depending upon the compliance of the family to follow the treatment protocol and at the same time even if the family is compliant with the treatment and we see complications like skin ulceration during the course of non surgical treatment we abandon the procedure. If the non surgical treatments is not responding or if the family do not opt for this kind of treatment then we offer them surgical procedure.
When to have surgery for congenital ear deformities?
After the age of 5 years we offer ear surgery, but not every child is a candidate of surgery at this age. The reason is his or her ear cartilage. If the child has well developed ear cartilage at the age of 5 years to sustain the surgical work performed to maintain the shape of the ear,we do surgery at this age otherwise we defer the surgery until the cartilage is well formed.
