Will Folded Ears Correct on their Own?
By Nicholas Bastidas, MD
I often get asked from new moms and dads if folded or funny shaped ears will correct on their own. The answer of course depends on how long its been that way as well as if the ear is missing parts of the cartilage that will prevent it from correcting without help. The general rule of thumb is that deformed (not malformed) ears will correct within the first 5-7 days of life. In fact when my daughter was born she had elf looking ears and i was thinking i would have to mold her ears using an Earwell device. 2 days later the ears had fully self-corrected and i didn’t need to do anything. For this reason i always tell patients to wait at least 5 days before coming in for a consultation.
After five to seven days of life however, if the ears have not improved on their own 85-90% will likely stay the same way for the rest of your child’s life. This creates a sweet spot for intervention which is 1-3 weeks and significant time limitation. I often see parents who present several months later and the treatment is not as efficacious.
The old teaching was to just ignore misshapen ears, thinking that they will likely get better without intervention. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case and ears should be molded as close to 1 week after birth ideally if so desired. Some parents use hats and try to push the ears back to correct the deformity and we do not discourage that. The ear well device that we use has been designed to correct misshapen ears and offers vectors of molding that a simple hat or tape can not mimic.
A good indicator to predict if ears will correct may be to see if there is a family history of folded or funny looking ears. A sibling or a parent perhaps. There seems to be some genetic link to the quality of the cartilage and the shape of the ears that newborn may possess.
It is important to distinguish a deformation (misshapen ear due to force or compression in the womb) from a malformation (missing anatomic parts of the ear cartilage). Usually malformed ears are smaller (microtia) and may even be associated with ear tags (branchial remnants). A small ear canal may also be present in a malformed or microtia type ear. Ear molding will not fully correct a microtia problem and only ear reconstruction will serve that purpose. Please feel free to send us a picture if you are unsure or have any questions.
To sum it all up, ears may correct on their own up 1 week after birth. If they haven’t please consider making an appointment soon after to do ear molding if you desire correction for your newborn.
