Type:
Ear surgery
Hearing:
Your ear is packed with dissolvable packing and ointment, so your hearing will be muffled for up to 3 weeks.
Pain:
Mild to moderate discomfort occurs after ear surgery. Take pain medication as instructed by your surgeon, usually every 4 – 6 hours as needed. Call your surgeon if the pain is getting worse.
Dressing:
If you have a cup over your ear after surgery, keep this on for 24 hours. Then you may wear it as needed for comfort. You will have a cotton ball in your ear. You may change this as needed to catch drainage.
Showering:
The incision behind your ear should stay completely dry for 3 days, then a shower or bath is okay, but do not soak the incision under water. The ear canal needs to stay completely dry until your first follow-up visit. When showering, coat a cotton ball in ointment or Vaseline and place it in the ear.
Activity for Three Weeks:
No strenuous activity (no running, no PE class, nothing that raises the heart rate) Avoid nose blowing, straining, Sneeze with mouth open.
Medications:
Use prescribed ear drops starting 1 week after surgery and continue until follow-up appointment.
Follow-Up:
Make a follow-up appointment to see the surgeon approximately 3 weeks after surgery. It takes this long for the packing in the ear canal to dissolve. All the sutures used are dissolvable, so there is no suture removal necessary.
Hearing Test:
You will get a follow-up hearing test 2 – 3 months after your surgery.
Reasons to Call:
increasing pain, increasing drainage from the ear canal or the incision behind the ear, especially purulent drainage, fever / upper respiratory infection symptoms, vertigo / dizziness / spinning sensation, inability to move the face on the side of the surgery.