No-one makes ears like Françoise Firmin!!

There are a few ways to make an ear. One could go the prosthetic route; this involves having a prosthetist making an ear, and then having magnets surgically implanted for the ear to clip on to. I considered this, but decided I wanted an ear that was part of my body and that I did not have to clip on every day. You can also make an ear using medpor (which is a synthetic material) or you can have an ear made from your rib cartilage, which is what I am having done.

Why I dont like medpor: It is a hard material, and doesn't feel like an ear. Medpor is most commonly used as a bone graft, and I in fact have a medpor implant in my jaw, and it works very well as a substitute for bone. When people get an ear reconstruction, they do so for aesthetic reasons. In my opinion, it does not look like an ear. To me it looks like something that was made outside the body by a human and then inserted under the skin, which is exactly what a medpor ear is.

On to using rib cartilage. This involves a number of ops. Some doctors do this reconstruction using 4 ops, while others use 2. My surgeon does it using 2. In the first op, cartilage is harvested from the bottom 3 ribs (if the microtia is on the left she uses the ribs from the left side, and if it's on the right, she uses the ribs on the right). Before the op she would have drawn the good ear onto a transparency. This becomes her framework. She flips the transparency, so that it looks like a good ear would look on the side of the microtia. She then carves the cartilage according to her transparency. This is then placed under a pocket of skin on the microtia side. The skin is then suctioned, and 2 special drains are inserted inder the skin. This creates a vacuum. At this point in time the ear looks like an ear but it is flat as it has not been raised. In the first op, a piece of cartilage would have been harvested then put back in the body for use during op number 2. In the second op, that piece of cartilage is removed from the rib cage then placed under the ear. Then Dr Firmin removes a thin layer of skin from above where the ear sits. This skin is then used to cover that little piece of cartilage. Then as the French would say: Voila a new ear!! This ear looks like it is part of the body, and feels like an ear. Also if you would like it pierced, Dr Firmin will do that for you while you're in theatre :-D

There are a few good doctors in the world that make these ears, but in MY opinion Dr Firmin is the BEST!! I have looked at quite a few other doctors' work, but they dont come close to Dr Firmin's work. I think this has to do with her training, as well as her determination to make good ears. First she went to Dr Burt Brent in California, who makes good ears, but does the reconstruction in 4 ops. Dr Firmin didn't like the fact that reconstruction was done in 4 ops and so went to train with Dr Satoru Nagata in Japan who does reconstruction in 2 ops. Personally I think his ears look a bit dodgy, but Dr Firmin had the technique from Dr Brent, and just went to learn what to do in each op. Now Dr Firmin does it in 2 ops and uses some of Dr Brent's techniques that she came up with herself, after practising on many potatoes (yes REALLY!!)

I don't just like her ears, I like her as a person. As you can see, I already know what she is going to do in theatre. I don't like docs who don't tell you exactly what they are going to do in theatre. She is also a very warm person with a wonderful sense of humour, and she makes people feel at ease. I also like the fact that she admits that there can be complications sometimes, but she says thats why she keeps patients in the hospital for 3-4 days. She also assures you that she has seen every complication and knows how to overcome them. And might I add that she does 300 ear ops a year!! Oh, and she has gorgeous earrings!! :-P