What do you do if an earring tears through your earlobe?
One of the great joys of fashion is the ability to wear jewelry that makes you happy, complements your features, and reflects your personal style. Whether you love classic pearls, sparkly diamond studs, gold hoops, dangling droplets, or beautiful baubles, the ability to comfortably and aesthetically don beautiful earrings is a large part of this joy.
A recent patient came to me with a torn earlobe after waking up to realize that her earring had become uncomfortably lodged in the hole where her ear had been pierced, perhaps because it had been pulled or jostled in her sleep. Upon further investigation and removal of the embedded earring, I discovered that the patient had a significant tear of her earlobe.
Cartier panther earrings in diamond and emerald.
Van Cleef and Arpels Alhambra earrings in tiger's eye.
Mikimoto droplet earrings in pearl and diamond.
Harry Winston earrings in emerald, platinum, and diamond.
Torn earlobes can occur all of a sudden, when an earring gets traumatically pulled, or they can happen slowly over time, as the weight of heavy, dangling earrings slowly stretches out your ear hole. In either case, if your pierced ear hole has enlarged or torn, the only way to correct the problem is through a surgical repair.
Repair of a torn earlobe is a quick surgical procedure that can be performed while you are wide awake, only using local anesthetic to numb your ear. The procedure itself takes 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the complexity of your situation. After appropriate healing, you can have your ear re-pierced and return to wearing earrings.
If you have a torn earlobe and would like to schedule an appointment for Dr. Devgan to evaluate your ear (and fix it on the same day as your consultation!), please call (212) 452-2400 to set up an appointment.
