A Psychological View of Auricle Plasty

Summary

Introduction:
People who differ from standards dictated by fashion often encounter greater problems in making contacts and at the same time may suffer from inferiority complex. Otoplasty is the name of a surgical operation correcting the auricles in order to correspond to accepted view of how a „correct” auricle should look like.

Material and methods:
At the Children ORL Clinic of Faculty Hospital at Brno, auricle plasty was performed in 282 patients, 99 boys and 183 girls during 2000 – 2007. The mean age of the patients was 7 years.

Discussion:
In the observation of the evolution of the view of the patient’s own appearance from the standpoint of the handicap a five-year period can be outlined: 1) birth to 3rd year of life; 2) preschool age; 3) younger school age; 4) older school age; 5) puberty and adolescence.

Conclusion:
Otoplasty can minimize the negative effect of a less attractive appearance on the child’s self-evaluation, since at the moment when the child becomes aware of the own looks he/she has already undergone the surgery to provide „normal” ears.

Key words:
otapostasis, otoplasty, handicap.