Otoplasty

Otoplasty — also called pinnaplasty or ear pinning — repositions ears that sit too far from the head, corrects an underdeveloped anti-helical fold, or reduces conchal excess. The two approaches we use are anti-helical fold reformation and conchal setback. Your surgeon chooses the technique — or combines them — based on the cartilage anatomy of your specific ear, not on a protocol applied uniformly across all patients.

The procedure runs between 90 minutes and two and a half hours, performed under local anaesthesia with sedation or general anaesthesia depending on what your surgeon recommends after reviewing your photographs and history. You remain at the recovery hotel for five nights, which is when the early healing matters most and when your coordinator is on call.

The planning stage

Before you travel, you receive a written surgical plan signed by your named surgeon. It covers the technique selected, the anaesthesia approach, and what recovery will look like for your case. There is no fee for the consultation or the plan, and no obligation to proceed.

This plan is what allows you to make a clear decision from home — not a brochure, not a quote from a form, but a document from the person who will be in the theatre.

Otoplasty is appropriate for adults and children from around the age of five or six, once ear cartilage has reached close to adult size. The most common presentations are:

• Ears that protrude significantly from the side of the head (prominent ears)
• An absent or underdeveloped anti-helical fold — the inner ridge of cartilage that normally creates the ear's natural contour
• Asymmetry between the two ears where one sits noticeably differently from the other
• A previous otoplasty that did not achieve the intended position or that has partially relapsed

The right candidacy decision is made with your surgeon, looking at photographs of your ear anatomy. General health and anaesthesia suitability are part of the pre-operative assessment.

Immediately after surgery, a soft bandage or headband holds the ears in their new position while the cartilage settles. You will wear this for roughly seven days — the period when the result is most visible to others around you.

What most patients describe as the hard part of recovery is actually the waiting rather than the discomfort. The ears look right within days. The final position settles over six months as any residual swelling resolves and the cartilage stabilises fully.

Days 1–7: Rest at the recovery hotel. Your coordinator checks in. If anything needs the surgeon's attention, that call happens.

Day 7: Dressing review with your surgeon before you fly home.

Month 3 and Month 6: Video reviews with your named surgeon. The six-month review is when the result can be assessed properly.

Practical notes for travelling patients

The five nights at the recovery hotel are not optional padding — they are when the critical post-operative window takes place. Your coordinator arranges airport transfer, the recovery hotel stay, and the pre-flight surgeon review before you return home. You do not need to organise these independently.

Otoplasty produces stable, long-lasting results in the large majority of cases. That said, honest planning requires acknowledging what can vary:

Cartilage memory — ear cartilage has a natural tendency to return toward its original position, particularly in younger patients with very elastic cartilage. The suture technique and the degree of cartilage scoring are calibrated to account for this, but a small degree of relapse can occur in some cases.

Asymmetry — because both ears are independent structures with their own cartilage anatomy, perfect symmetry is not guaranteed and is not the goal. The goal is harmony: ears that no longer read as prominent from a conversational distance.

Scar visibility — the incision sits behind the ear in the natural fold. In the early months it may feel firm or slightly raised. Over six to twelve months it typically fades and softens. Scar quality varies by individual skin type.

These are not reasons to avoid the procedure. They are the details your surgeon goes through with you at the planning stage so that you arrive at a clear, realistic picture of what to expect — not a promotional one.

The majority of patients who come to CFH for otoplasty travel from the UK, Ireland, and continental Europe. They are typically not looking for the lowest-cost option. They are looking for the surgeon they can trust to be accountable across the full arc — from the first photograph they submit to the six-month review they attend via video from home.

The CFH model is built for exactly that:

• One named surgeon who owns your case from intake to close-out
• JCI and TEMOS accreditation at BHT Clinic — the facility-wide international standards for hospital safety and international patient care
• Eight intake languages — English, Romanian, Italian, Spanish, French, Albanian, Arabic, and Farsi — so that nothing is lost between what you mean and what we plan
• Three decades of continuous practice under the Bahat Medical Group since 1994
• No consultation fee and a written surgical plan within 48 hours of submitting your photographs

The question of cost is a reasonable one. Otoplasty at CFH falls in the €3,400 – €5,200 range for the surgical procedure. What that figure includes — the named surgeon, the full recovery coordination, the post-operative review programme — is what the consultation stage makes clear.