What causes a torn ear lobe? Why is my earlobe splitting? What kind of earrings make ear holes big?
The most common cause for ear hole to become big or split especially in India women are as follows:
- Long term use of improper or dangling earrings: Married women in India, culturally like to wear heavy or prominent gold earrings. Their long term use creates tension on the ear hole causing them to enlarge or split after a long time use
- Aging: At smart surgeons most women that come for earlobe repair also called as lobuloplasty are above the age of 40 years. As we age the elasticity and volume of the skin reduces. We all know that aging causes loss of volume on our cheeks, similarly this volume loss also happens in the earlobes, making them more susceptible to tearing and stretching
- Trauma: dangling earrings and hoops are also more susceptible to trauma, and sometimes can tear the earlobe if it gets entangled or caught in clothes
- Improper piercing: Most of us do get our ears pierced at a medical center, and rather get it done at a parlor. Beauty parlors pierce the ears based on estimation and also do not understand the difference in the anatomy of each person. Thus they end up improperly positioning the piercing too low, which makes it more susceptible to tearing after a time
Specific types of earrings that you should avoid the long term use of are: heavy earrings, danglers, hoops, earrings with sharp edges, clip-on earrings and earrings made of poor quality material.
Clip-on earrings should be particularly avoided as it can restrict blood supply to the earlobe.
Similarly one should wear earrings made of inert materials which are hypoallergenic like gold, platinum, titanium or fine or sterling silver.
Can earlobes grow back? What is ear lobe repair called? Can I close my earring holes? Can you fix ear lobes?
When a tissue around the earlobe hole stretches, the elastic and collagen fibers that make the bulk of the tissue get permanently stretched and reorganized. If the tissue damage is too much, then there could also be scar tissue formation which is much less elastic than the normal fibers. It is because of this reason that torn or stretched earlobes do not heal or repair on their own or naturally.
Therefore torn or stretched earlobes need surgical repair in most cases, which is called lobuloplasty. Read our treatment section for more details.
