JUSTIN C.K. DAVIS, M.D.: Hi, my name is Dr. Justin Davis. Today I'd like to talk to you about ear surgeries. Now, ear surgery is a very broad category because it describes any kind of surgery that has to do with the ear. Most of us have had a very common kind of ear surgery known as piercing our ears or putting earrings in, but this isn't what most people consider ear surgery. The most common types of surgery will be surgery on the external part of the ear, this is known as an otoplasty or correcting the shape of the ear, and the other most common type of ear surgery is called a myringotomy, and this is when the inner part of the ear is operated on. Now let me tell you a little bit more about these two types of surgery. Why would somebody have surgery on the external part of the ear and have an otoplasty? Well, the main reasons tend to be either that the ear sticks out abnormally and so, for appearance sake, someone who may want to have their ear corrected and brought in closer to the head, or the other reason is that sometimes children could be born with abnormally shaped or deformed ears, and it's a procedure that is done to correct the shape or rebuild an ear. The otoplasties is usually are done in the case of a malformed ear at an early age and maybe in early adolescence, when tissues from the other body and cartilage from the other body may be harvested and then a new ear is rebuilt. Sometimes, this takes several procedures to be done correctly. The other type of common otoplasty, when the ears are pinned back because they're sticking out too much. Well, This is usually done a little bit later, usually in the early teens. The other type of common ear surgery that I discussed was called myringotomy. A myringotomy is more commonly referred to as getting tubes in the ears. This may happen in one or both of the ears of children. Usually we do this because children have repeated and recurring ear infections and need to release some of the pressure on the inner part of the ear. What happens is the inner part of the ear, also known as the eustachian tube, may simply be too small or may have too much fluid or pus built up behind it, and some pressure needs to be released. In this case, a specialized surgeon will go in and make a tiny incision inside of the tympanic membrane, that's the eardrum, and put in a small tube which allows a free flow of fluid and pressure to be released. So if you have some kind of ear abnormality, whether it's an
external ear abnormality or an internal ear problem, and you're having frequent infections as a child, you don't necessarily have to put up with it. It's important to see a doctor who can tell you about your options and whether or not you'd be an appropriate candidate, or your child would be an appropriate candidate for some kind of ear surgery
