Do ear molds hurt babies?
by: Nicholas Bastidas, MD
One question i get asked is if ear molds are painful to the babies. Ear molds are designed to be worn comfortably and without any pain or discomfort to your baby. We currently use the ear well system which has a soft, compressible silicone shell that will cradle the ear. Your baby can sleep on their side or can feed lying on the molded ear without it causing any issues.
The ear mold itself is attached to the skin by surgical tape and glue and so there are no needles involved or any penetration of the skin. The risks of ear moldings are very low and there is no significant risk of causing any serious injury.
While the ear molds are on, your baby can hear totally normal because of the holes that are in the outer plate. In addition, even the inner conchal former piece (that I sometimes use) has holes within it to allow the passage of sound.
Babies will sometimes cry when we put the molding on, which is mainly due to the us having to place them on their side and hold their head steady while we apply the ear mold. After the parents pick them up the crying almost immediately stops. In addition, we encourage parents to feed their babies at the same time we are applying the ear well device to make it an even more pleasant situation for the children.
Rarely, in some babies who have severe eczema, ear molding may irritate the surrounding skin and precipitate an eczema reaction. In these situations, we may have you remove the ear molding device temporarily and apply a topical steroid cream. This will usually clear the skin condition up with 24-48hrs.
Ear molding is really a low risk / high reward procedure for treating deformed infant ears. It is pain-free, requires absolutely no anesthesia and can be worn comfortably for the entire 4 week treatment period. Our experience of over 1200 ear molds allows to get the best results for your baby possible with the lowest risk of complications. Ear molding is a much better alternative to surgery down the road as better outcomes can be obtained by molding he natural cartilage and there is no downtime or recuperation period.
