Ear plastic surgery (otoplasty) improves the form and proportions of the ear, corrects congenital ear structure defects or defects resulting from an injury of the ear. A natural ear shape that fits the proportions of a face is achieved during ear surgery.

Ear plastic surgery can be applied to correct the following:

• Excessively large ears (a rare condition called macrotia)
• Prominent ear (one or both) (this does not cause a hearing impairment)
• Errors of previous ear plastic surgeries

Children may have ear surgery if they are:

• Healthy, do not have major health problems and have not been treated for chronic ear infections
• At least 5 years old or when the child’s ear cartilage is developed enough to undergo a correction
• Communicative, able to convey their feelings, actively expressing their wish to have an ear correction and ready to follow the instructions of doctors

Ear correction is performed using local anaesthesia: the child does not feel any pain but remains wakeful throughout the surgery.