My Nine-year-old's Ear Piercing Ripped, Not All the Way Through, but Close?

If your daughter's earlobe injury is new, you should remove the ear ring and let the piercing heal. It is possible that the tear might heal well enough that she wouldn't require a minor procedure to repair it. If the tear is older or has healed completely it will shrink over time but will never completely close. In that case, she would benefit from an earlobe repair to close the tear and then re-pierce her ear. If she is OK with the procedure, this can be performed under local anesthesia in the office. Patients are typically very satisfied with the results. I hope this information is helpful.Stephen Weber MD, FACS

This happens all the time. Holes can be uneven. Holes can stretch over time, or are stretched after trauma, (kids pulling on earrings).  We repair these holes often under local anesthesia in the office. Give your local facial plastic surgeon or board certified plastic surgeon a call.

If the piercing hole has nearly reached the bottom of the earlobe, it would be best to repair it now as opposed to just removing the earrings and letting the piercings close. This elongation of the piercing will not get better on its own.

A split earlobe procedure is a very common and relatively simple procedure.

After it is done, you can wait around six weeks before having the earlobe repierced.  

 

I like to use a technique in which part of the skin lining the cleft of the torn earlobe (partial or complete) is used to create a new tract for the earring. This places the tract in the original position which was hopefully the correct position. Repairing the cleft and then re-piercing will often place the piercing in scar tissue which is not ideal. This technique works very well and is almost "instant gratification", since a sterile  earring is inserted at the time of the procedure.The procedure can be done easily under local anesthesia in the office.

A stretched hole from years of wearing heavy earrings or, as in this case, from an earring catching and pulling, is a fairly common problem. Many different surgical repair approaches have been described in the medical literature for dealing with these types problems, each having its proponents.

In the over thirty years I have been treating such problems, I have found one technique to be quick and easy to perform, relatively inexpensive, and one which yields gratifying results. The approach consists simply of first numbing the elongated hole or the torn area with a small amount of local anesthesia consisting of lidocaine with epinephrine. Following this, the inner sides of the walls of the tear are lightly cauterized, essentially creating a fresh wound.  Next, the wound is tightly taped together with steristrips. In a  few days the walls of the freshly-created wound heal together closing the defect permanently.

Once this occurs, I usually suggest that both earlobes be repierced through a new location, nearby to the previous site (but not through the healed area). The reason for this is that healed wounds tend not to be as strong as the original tissue and would be more likely to stretch once again. 

The whole procedure takes no more than five minutes to perform. Following repiercing, the new earrings usually mask any evidence of the retreatment.

Dear lieseldiesel,


Did you end up doing anything since you asked the question?

If the hole is still large, then closing them surgically would work

You can re-pierce them in 6-8 weeks


Best regards,

Nima Shemirani

From the sound of it, the simplest thing to do is to have it surgically repaired and re-pierced at a later time.  

There is no one correct answer to your question.  It could be done either way and ultimately would be your choice.  If you remove the earring now, I'm not sure the piercing (and rip) would close on their own, but you could try it.  There would be no harm in seeing if that worked first and then she could always have the rip repaired later if needed.  

It's certainly reasonable to remove the earring but more than likely the near complete tear will not heal entirely or spontaneously close.  Repair of a split earlobe is an in office procedure done under local anesthesia.  If your daughter is able to cooperate and remain still for about 20-30 minutes, she is a reasonable candidate for repair.  Is you don't think she will be able to tolerate this, the repair can be done at any subsequent point in time without any added difficulty or complication.

A fresh wound will try to heal itself.  I would consider removing the earring and letting it heal.  It may heal quite well and no further procedures may be needed.
If after healing, the earlobe needs re-piercing, that could be considered then.  If it does not heal well, then surgery could be considered.
So I would be conservative before going for a procedure.
As for age, ear lobe repair can be done under local anesthesia - but this may be impossible with a 9 year old.  Too young to tolerate the injection, sit still, and understand what is happening.
But please see a local doctor for a specific in-person opinion.