Earlobe Repair Surgery Long Island, NY
Serving patients in Huntington Station & Suffolk County, NY
Serving patients in Huntington Station & Suffolk County, NY
Heavy or gauged earrings, trauma, or years of wear can take their toll on the delicate tissue of the earlobes. Torn, stretched, or split earlobes can significantly alter your appearance and limit your ability to express your personal style.
At Charlotte Ann Rhee, MD, PC, board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Rhee offers earlobe repair surgery to restore natural shape and symmetry with minimal scarring. With over 30 years of experience and an eye for proportion and detail, Dr. Rhee combines technical precision with compassion, helping patients regain confidence in their appearance and the freedom to wear earrings again.
Repair torn, stretched, or split earlobes
30 – 60 minutes
Local anesthetia
Return to daily activities within a few days
Smooth, natural-looking earlobes with minimal scarring
Tears, elongated piercings, gauged lobes, or trauma
Over time, a pierced earlobe can become stretched if a person frequently wears large or heavy earrings. In addition to creating a long or wide opening, earrings may tear completely through the lobe. A torn earlobe may also result from trauma, such as having an earring pulled off or caught on clothing. Other patients seek earlobe repair to close the large holes created by gauged piercings.
Dr. Charlotte Ann Rhee is a Board-Certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon in Huntington, Long Island, NY, who provides earlobe repair for those with torn earlobes with a quick in-office procedure performed under local anesthesia.
Torn earlobe repair first involves “freshening” the edges of the torn lobe by removing a small amount of skin. Then, using fine sutures, the earlobe is meticulously repaired to reconstruct a normal, rounded earlobe that matches your natural ear shape.
You will be able to return home immediately after the procedure, with only a small bandage covering the stitches. The stitches will be removed after one to two weeks. When the earlobe has healed and the scar has softened, you may re-pierce the repaired earlobe. It takes about three months for the earlobe to fully heal.
Fashions and trends come and go, but for those that impact our earlobes, our skin didn’t get the message. There are generally two causes where Dr. Rhee is called upon to repair earlobe damage: trauma or stretching.
Trauma is often the result of wearing large hoop earrings that can catch on things. You may have been taking off a sweater or just brushing your hair. You may have picked up a small child, and he or she was enamored with your earrings, and before you know it, was grabbing and pulling one. If the earring catches or is pulled, it can tear right through the bottom of the lobe.
Today’s earrings have also become heavier and wider. This isn’t good for your earlobe skin. The weight can pull down and enlarge the original earring piercing to the degree that it is visible to others. Earrings are also growing in diameter, with the ultimate example being gauges. Gauges are discs placed in the earlobe. If left in place long enough, when these gauges are removed, the hole they created cannot close up and will need surgery to do so.
When your earlobe is stretched and there is a large hole in the middle, it can be distracting when someone is talking to you. The same is true of a former earlobe tear that has healed unevenly or may not have healed at all.
These are not difficult procedures. Dr. Rhee uses her board-certified surgical skills to repair the damaged earlobe with the goal of the incision scar being as fine as possible. These scars become basically invisible relatively quickly.
There’s really no reason not to have a damaged earlobe repaired. Schedule your consultation today to discuss your goals and have Dr. Rhee create your personalized earlobe repair treatment plan.
Candidates for earlobe repair surgery have torn or elongated piercing tracts. The tears can be partial or complete — that doesn’t change the procedure to repair them.
Sometimes, Dr. Rhee will have a potential patient ask about these surgeries, assuming she isn’t a candidate because the injury was not addressed immediately. That’s not the case; these injuries don’t have to be recent to be repaired. If the patient, for instance, split her earlobe and hoped it would heal on its own, but it hasn’t, she can come to our Huntington Station offices, and it can still be repaired. The only difference is that Dr. Rhee will have to remove the edge of the healed skin at the tear to promote new healing at the treatment site.
“Dr. Rhee is an amazing plastic surgeon as well as an amazing person. She made my experience so easy. I am so happy I did my surgery with her, she changed my life!” – Marissa B.
This is a relatively short recovery. The patient can usually return home or go back to work immediately. The earlobe doesn’t have many nerves, so the pain is not extreme and can usually be managed with over-the-counter pain medication. You’ll need to apply prescription antibiotic ointment to the incision regularly. Your sutures will usually come out in 7-10 days when any swelling resolves.
Our ears usually go unnoticed…until they don’t. As with children who have protruding ears, a torn or stretched earlobe can be quite obvious and distracting to others talking with you or otherwise in close proximity. But surgical repair with Dr. Rhee leaves nothing but a faint vertical scar, which becomes less and less visible with every passing week.
After about 10-12 weeks, your earlobe will be fully healed, and you can have it pierced again. You do need to be sure not to have the new piercing placed in the scar or just above the scar. That’s because the scar tissue is weaker than your original skin, so it will re-tear more easily. Have the new piercing placed on either side of the scar.
If Dr. Rhee repaired your earlobe due to stretching caused by large gauges, it would be a good idea to leave that fashion statement in the rear-view mirror from here on out.
When you come to see Dr. Charlotte Ann Rhee, you’re cared for by a board-certified plastic surgeon known for her gentle technique, artistic eye, and commitment to natural results. With over three decades of experience, Dr. Rhee has helped patients across Long Island restore confidence through refined, subtle improvements.
Dr. Rhee understands how deeply personal cosmetic concerns can be. At her private boutique practice in Huntington Station, NY, you’ll receive personalized attention and concierge-level care in a comfortable, compassionate environment.
Schedule A Consultation
If you are interested in learning more about our Earlobe Repair Surgery, call (631) 424-6707 today to schedule an appointment.
Scars are minimal and fade over time, often becoming nearly invisible within a few months.
Yes, Dr. Rhee usually recommends waiting 3 months for complete healing before re-piercing.
No. The area is numbed with local anesthetic, and most patients describe only mild soreness afterward.
Yes. Dr. Rhee can safely perform repairs on both earlobes during a single appointment.
Results are permanent with proper care. Avoiding heavy earrings helps preserve the repaired earlobe in the long term.
These are very low-risk procedures with Dr. Rhee. She performs them with only local anesthesia, and reactions are quite rare to lidocaine. As mentioned above, the earlobe doesn’t have many nerves, so there is no danger of loss of function or other damage. The main risk is infection, but we prescribe an antibiotic ointment. Diligent use of it mitigates that risk.
