Everyone knows the power and the versatility of injectable fillers. They bring back the volume that’s been lost over time, via stress, wear and tear, gravity, and whatever else drains us of our youthful appearance. The injectable fillers do remarkably well when it comes to filling out cheeks and lips and hands – and there’s yet more that they can do. Earlobe plumping is real, and can be performed quite successfully with the help of fillers.
Who knew we’d be talking about how ears are right now? On a recent episode of E!’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kris Jenner shared that, when it comes to her insecurities, some of her biggest center on her earlobes. Too large and I think the word she used was ‘limply.’ Yes, there are surgeries that can reduce the size of the area of the lobe and ear, you don’t have to resort to the scalpel for a lobe lift.
Vogue is even suggesting 2018, “may very well be the year of the ear.”
Why Not Plumper Earlobes?
Casually known as “wrinkle fillers,” injectable filler therapies can help enhance and correct a number of issues:
- Smooth out lines around nose and mouth (a.k.a. marionette lines, smile lines, and parentheses)
- Enhance and restore volume to sunken cheeks or temples
- Diminish vertical lip lines
- Plump and enhance the lips
- Smooth out a chin crease
- Improve symmetry among facial features
Dr. Mary Gingrass, a board certified plastic surgeon in Nashville, loves the look of injected ears so much that she does it herself. “Injectables for ear plumping is actually a really good idea,” Dr. Gingrass tells The Plastic Surgery Channel. “And I’ve had it. Because you get those sags in your ear lobes because you’ve been using dangly earrings for years and years. It kind of gives a little bit of an extra lift. And it starts to fill in those ear holes that are starting to sag a little bit so I think it’s a fabulous idea.”
Combining Earlobe Plumping with Another Procedure
Dr. Dustin Reid, an Austin-based plastic surgeon, especially likes the idea of a plumper, fuller ear lobe when something else is being altered with a patient. Earlobe plumping can be a subtle, but noticeable, add-on. “Sometimes the earlobe can have volume loss and have wrinkles associated with it and having it plumped up a little bit looks really nice,” Dr. Reid says.
That said, it’s not a procedure you should automatically agree to, without taking into consideration several, possible personal, issues. “I think you have to be careful,” Reid explains. “Whether you use filler or fat because sometimes I use fat grafting at the time of a face lift. You just have to have to have a conversation with the patient about to make sure it’s something that they want.”
“If they’ve had a lot of volume loss and they have really big earlobes, they might be fine with the volume loss. Just set expectations and do what the patient wants,” he adds.
What’s Good for the Cheeks has to be Good for the Earlobes
If you’ve spent years having heavy chandelier-like earrings hanging from your poor lobes, seriously stretched-out ends of the ear probably can’t be helped by anti-aging creams, no matter how good and expensive they are. That’s where and why in-office, quick injections do the earlobe trick so well.
Watch Out for Too Much of a Good Thing
Dr. Tiffany McCormack, a Reno-based board certified plastic surgeon, has both the same enthusiasm for earlobe plumping as others do in this article, as well as having the same cautious approach Dr. Reid shared.
“It’s an interesting concept. The only issue there is as we age, some women develop larger earlobes and making a larger earlobe even bigger with filler may end up looking ridiculous,” Dr. McCormack says. “So I think if it’s just purely volume loss, that could work, but making an elongated earlobe look fatter could look silly.”
The injectable procedure averages around $500 and requires touch-ups once or twice a year. In the most extreme cases, it might not be enough; severely damaged holes may need to be stitched and re-pierced or trimmed, like Jenner’s. Still, for the earring-obsessed, it’s a quick, almost effortless solution to a particularly irritating problem.