How much downtime and pain come with an earlobe repair?

The very short answer is that you should be in and out of my office in 30 minutes for a single torn or stretched earlobe repair (45 minutes for two stretched earlobes). It is very common to have this problem on both earlobes. I almost always use dissolving sutures so you don’t have to return for a follow up unless you want to.

How painful is this procedure? I inject local into the earlobe but I use a very, very tiny needle and the earlobe gets numb very quickly. The numbing should last hours and you can return to work immediately after you have the repair if you’d like. You can shower the next morning. There should be little to no discomfort and it should not require anything more than Tylenol for pain management. You can exercise as hard as you want the day after the repair.

Want to get your ear re-pierced? You can safely do so six weeks following the repair.