After otoplasty: the headband, and how to sleep for six weeks

The schedule, week by week

A bulky dressing for three days, then a soft elastic band day and night for two weeks, then nights only for a further four. That is the standard schedule and we do not shorten it. Sleep on your back with two pillows for the first fortnight; the pressure of a side-lying head on a freshly sutured ear is exactly the force that loosens a stitch. Patients who abandon the band early are the ones who need a revision.

Why cartilage tries to spring back

Cartilage has elastic memory. The antihelical fold we create is held by permanent sutures through the cartilage, but for the first six weeks those sutures are working against tissue that wants to return to its original shape. Scar tissue forming around the new fold is what eventually makes the correction permanent, and that takes about six weeks to become mechanically meaningful. The band is not treating the skin; it is buying time for that scar to form.

How tight is too tight

Snug, not compressive. The band should hold the ears flat against the head without leaving a deep groove in your forehead or making the ear rim white. Too tight causes pressure sores on the upper ear where skin sits directly on cartilage, and that complication is far harder to fix than a slightly loose result. If you wake with numbness, throbbing or a dent in the skin, loosen it and contact us. Two bands are supplied so one can be washed.

Hair, glasses, showers and sport

You can wash your hair from day four, gently, with the band off and back on immediately afterwards. Glasses can rest on the ear from about week two if the frame is light; heavy frames wait until week four. No swimming for three weeks, no headphones that clamp over the ear for six, and no contact sport for six weeks minimum. Children go back to school after a week but sit out PE until the surgeon clears them.

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