How Can I Reconstruct My Lost Tragus After A Facelift?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have a facelift last year and my tragus was removed. I would like to reconstruct a new tragus.

A:This is a far bigger problem to correct than you think. This is a classic example of a facelift that was done were all of the tension has been put on the skin level at the ear resulting in loss of the tragus, a pixie ear and hypertrophic scars behind the ear. The only way to approach correction is to redo the facelift and re-elevate  the skin flaps to create more skin around the ear which may be able to support a cartilage graft for the tragus, reduce the pixie earlobe while keeping the scar underneath it as well as narrowing the scars behind the ear. Whether you now have enough skin to be able to do that depends on how far out you are from the original facelift surgery as well as is there any residual skin laxity

Dr. Barry Eppley