Concerning Otoplasty and Prominent Ears; do protruding ears go away with age?

No, protruding ears do not "un-protrude" with time. They are caused by altered development of the cartilage within the ears and can only be changed through surgery. I suppose one could "grow into" their ears in time but the protrusion would remain.

Thanks for the question. 85% of the ear development is completed at the age of 3 and 93% at the age of 10. Because of that, this process can be carried out in the preschool period without the child having a social trauma. I wish you all the best.

I have been observing ears as a plastic surgeon for 37 years and have a few observations:1. Protruding ears will be les obvious in many children as their head size catches up the ears.  That is why I advise parents to wait until the child is old enough to be involved in the decision process--age 9 or 102. Ears do not grow with age--the face shrinks from fat loss ; the earlobes also  lose fat and sag more--looks like the ears have grown but we have no evidence of that.  (same thing for the nose--refilling the tissues with fat around the nose and even the nose itself makes it appear smaller.)3. Every type of protruding ear needs a little different approach depending upon the parts of the ear involved--in other words, otoplasty is not just one, standard procedure. The procedure will vary widely by the practitioner's experience and the anatomic deformities that are being treated.

The external ear reaches the majority of its adult size within early childhood (4-5 years old), and its final size closer to the teenage years.  While the ear cartilage of a newborn child is soft and pliable (making ear molding and non-surgical correction possible), the pliability of the ear is generally gone by the end of the first year of life.  Excessively protruding ears are most commonly caused by an overgrowth of cartilage height at the conchal bowl (the seashell shaped portion of the ear just behind the ear canal) and a poorly-formed or absent antihelical fold (the Y-shaped fold of cartilage in the upper 2/3 of the ear).  These characteristics do not improve with age.  

Protruding ears? Does this go away with time? Thank you for the question.   I would say that there is some truth in that. Your ears are basically adult size by the time your teenage years.    This is also true for your head and face. That being said there are still changes in fact I am in facial features as we age from teenagers to young people in her 20s and so on. What I would say is if you are very young person just give it more time and see how things change if you don't feel that strongly about it.    If you have an otoplasty or ear pinning surgery now it's forever and you can't change it.   If you give yourself a few years to see how things evolve then you can always have surgery in the future. I think it's smart to give it time if you're not sure yet.   I really enjoy doing Otoplasty but  but most surgeries it's not one you should take lightly. It will change the way you look Chase Lay MD