Protruding ears, also known as "bat ears", are the most common congenital deformity. It is frequently a cause for teasing and can leave psychological scars in a child. Nowadays in aesthetic medicine otoplasty is considered as routine surgery. It can be performed on children at a young age, as the ear is already fully developed at the age of 5-7 years. The majority of the German public health insurers bears the costs of this treatment depending on the degree of psychological distress until school age. Afterwards, this corrective treatment is considered as cosmetic surgery and must be fully paid by the patient or his parents.

Otoplasty is a surgery where the cartilage is remodelled to create the missing folds and position the ear closer to the head. This can be performed both on children and adults.

Depending on the age of the patient, the treatment can generally be done under local anaesthetic.

After surgery a forehead bandage must be worn during day and night in total for 3 weeks and another 3 weeks at night time to prevent the ear from – especially during sleep – creasing or bending. Stitches are removed one week after treatment.