Lobuloplasty

Facial aesthetics develops depending on the symmetry and harmony of the facial skeletons and soft structures. The auricular lobule has an important place in face and ear aesthetics. It is generally conical and round in shape and is an important anatomical formation that allows women to wear accessories such as earrings (1, 2). It has different shapes, and sometimes it can attract a lot of attention on the face. It is known that Tutankhamun, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, had a stretched auricular lobule (3). In Africa, the Ivan and Kayan tribes adorn their auricular lobules with heavy and large earrings, causing the lobules to become wide and sagging (4).

In different societies, auricular lobules are pierced for religious, cosmetic, and social reasons; however, they are associated with the level of societal development. Partial or complete tear of the auricular lobule is an important situation that is very common in women and leads to cosmetic deformity. The use of earrings and heavy metals such as “piercing” leads to permanent deformities in the auricular lobule owing to the effect of gravity (5–10). It causes tearing in the auricular lobule due to age, trauma, and mechanical factors. The most frequent causes of the clefts in the auricular lobule are that the holes made in the auricule for ornamentation expand over time and that the ornaments separate the lips of the cleft from each other with the influence of gravity, thereby causing permanent holes (9).

According to the data of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in 2015, approximately 40,000 people per year undergo ear surgery for cosmetic purposes for ear defects developing because of trauma or wearing heavy earrings. Aesthetic ear interventions are the 6^th most common surgical procedures in males and 14th most common surgical procedures in females. Aesthetic ear surgery is most frequently performed at the age of 19–34 years, but there has been an increase in those below 18 years (11).

In the present study, the results of 13 patients who underwent auricular lobuloplasty for elongated or cleft auricular lobule were evaluated.

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