My daughter is seven years old and has ears that stick out from her face. She’s always being teased about her ears, and my husband and I are contemplating an ear pinning procedure for her.  I heard that the younger someone is, the easier this type of surgery is. Could you please tell me if this is true or not?

The older we get, the more firm our ear cartilage becomes, thus making contouring of the ear cartilage slightly more challenging. The potential benefit of performing otoplasty prior to a child entering school is to minimize the appearance of the protruding ear and the surgery is easier to perform because the ear cartilage is more flexible. That said, this surgery can be performed safely later in life.