“Children with protruding ears are exposed to peer bullying”

associate Dr Hayati Akbaş said that the prominent ear condition affects children’s psychology very badly. Dr. Dr. Akbaş said: “The prominent ear is a problem that causes serious trauma in children. When the child goes to school, he may face bullying from his friends. The physical disparity in his ears can be a mockery to his friends. This has negative consequences for the child. We, plastic surgeons, want children who we think have protruding ears to have this surgery if possible at the beginning of school age, around the age of 7 years. It is known that plastic surgery is normally performed after maturation is complete, but there are some exceptions to this. One of these exceptions is the prominent ear condition. It is never right to wait until the age of 18 with your ears pricked,” he said.

“Children grow their hair to cover their ears”

Akbaş stated that children grow their hair out on purpose to cover their ears at a young age, saying, “If the child is constantly growing his hair and covering his ears and he is in such environments, there is a situation that requires intervention. These protruding ears must be normalized with surgery. The ears should not be clearly perceived when viewed from the front. It’s an important part of the face, but it’s an area that shouldn’t draw much attention. If it attracts attention, an intervention is needed there. If the prominent ear condition has progressed too far and the family neglects it, negative events such as psychological deficiencies of self-confidence and disconnection from social environments can be observed in that child.

Protruding ears, which we consider simple, seem to be a major problem of lack of self-confidence. A 64-year-old gentleman with children and grandchildren came to us for prominent ear surgery. “Hodja, I’ve been missing this since I was a kid. I couldn’t talk to anyone about this situation, but while watching you on TV, I saw that you were doing such an event. He came to us from rural areas and had prominent ear surgery. Therefore, it is the duty of parents to ensure that this does not have a negative effect on our children. If we think the child has protruding ears, it is helpful to know that this is a treatable condition and that the treatment is positive for the child’s psyche. It is a situation that can be easily done with local anesthesia with an intervention of 30 minutes, does not even require hospitalization and can return to daily life after 3 days. Therefore, my advice to families is to pay attention to their children in this regard,” he said.