Bad Otoplasty - Birmingham, GB

I first visited Mr Nishikawa back in September 2015 at the Westbourne Centre. I originally just wanted to have the size of my earlobes reduced as i felt they were quite large. I then realized actually the top of my ears also protruded slightly more than they should so if i had these pinned back slightly it would help to give a more balanced look to my face. I asked Mr Nishikawa for his opinion and to his credit he advised my ears were well within a normal size both size or earlobe and the protrusion in the upper third and advised against the procedure.

After careful consideration i still went ahead with the procedure assuming it would be straight forward to achieve the look i wanted which was essentially very subtle changes - around a 3mm reduction in upper ear prominence and a slight reduction of earlobe size. So in November 2015 i underwent an otoplasty to correct both issues. I wore a head bandage for a week so i didn't get to see the results till the following week and once the bandage was removed and i looked in the mirror i initially felt happy with the results. The protrusion was no longer there and my earlobes were smaller as requested.

A day after the bandages came off i felt pain in my left ear much more than my right and started to examine in the mirror my ears a little more carefully. Looking at the right ear it was perfect however when i examined the left i could see distortion in the anthelix where it appeared to be a lot thicker than the right. I didn't think much of it at the time and assumed it was just swelling and it would go away. I started to then feel my ears from behind and noticed the left ear was a lot thicker in the antihelix the helix didn't feel like it was going straight down but it bent in the middle third. Examining my ears more closely i could see in the mirror now there was in fact an overcorrection in the middle third of the ear. Still i was not worried as i assumed it was swelling and it was all resolve in the end.

I started researching otoplasty overcorrection and come to realize distortions such as the overfolded antihelix complication i appeared to have did not resolve and it was a case of removing the sutures ASAP before too much scar tissue formed. A few weeks later realizing it would not get any better i visited Mr Nishikawa and asked him what he thought about my left ear and he responded by telling me the results were great in his eyes and the distortion would resolve. I am not a surgeon however i knew deep down this would not resolve without surgical intervention so i stressed i was not happy with the result and to my surprise Mr Nishikawa responded 'no one is looking at your ears anyway'. The whole reason i had the procedure was that i disliked my ears and the fact 'no one was looking at my ears anyway' was not the point and now i have ended up hating my ears even more than i already did!