EarBuddies were invented in 1990 by Plastic Surgeon David Gault FRCS, one of the world’s leading experts on reconstructive surgery of the outer ear, to treat his newborn son. EarBuddies are designed to be fitted at home by parents, and are also used in some of the most eminent children’s hospitals worldwide, including the NHS (UK), Mayo Clinic (USA), The Portland Hospital (London), and Boston Children’s Hospital (Harvard).
By treating babies early and avoiding surgery, EarBuddies provide better results, without risk, at lower cost, and avoid the bullying and psychological trauma that usually leads to surgery. Almost thirty years after EarBuddies were first developed, it is the world’s best selling Early Ear Correction™ system, and has helped thousands of babies to grow up comfortable and confident with their ears.
Stick-out ears like Santi's can make life miserable and lead to "reduced quality of life & self-esteem, social avoidance and poor performance in school." Children and adults are often teased and while names like 'Dumbo, Big Ears, Yoda, Spock & Wing Nut' can be meant in jest, they can have a deeper psychological impact.
Once, corrective ear surgery (Otoplasty/ Pinnaplasty) was the only option, costing up to £5000 for the average UK paediatric case. General anaesthesia and time off school or work are usually needed, and while post-op pain can be managed*, complication rates e.g. scarring can be as high as 10%.*
Now there's an ingenious way to fix your baby's ear problems before they are aware of them, avoiding the emotional impact of bullying & teasing, and the costs & complications of surgery. EarBuddies splints reshape the soft cartilage of baby's ears, resulting in a permanent, surgery-free correction.
We think of it like fitting braces to a child’s teeth, only more affordable and quicker. Newborn babies can get great results in just 2 weeks. If your baby is older, this can take longer. Santi was 5 months old when his mother fitted EarBuddies. 4 weeks later, he can grow up comfortable and confident with his ears.
“We tried to manage our expectations as Yvette’s ear did look worse than many of the other examples on the website. After a week and a half the tape was looking pretty dog-eared and tatty so we decided to remove it and reapply. We were stunned with the results! The ‘Bar’ was entirely gone and her ear looked normal. We really couldn’t believe how successful it had been in such a short space of time. After taking progress photos we reapplied the splint, this time putting more focus on rounding the shape of the ear. A week later, Yvette not even 4 weeks old, we have taken off splint and are so pleased with the result.
We are so glad we just sorted this ourselves rather than wait and go down the referral route. An inexpensive solution has offered a surgery-free alternative for our daughter which may save her years of bullying and torment in the future. We would definitely recommend this to others."
Liza, Oli & their Daughter Yvette - Lincolnshire, UK
Read Liza's Story HereShe was very active baby from the beginning, especially throughout the night, and every morning when I looked her ears - they were folded! So, until 4-5 months old, her ears were visibly stick out. I was really devastated. Because I know that aesthetic operation is very expensive in Serbia and our wages are very low, I started to search the internet to find if some other solution exists. And I found your website and EarBuddies!
We decided to give a try, and started to splint when Andrea was 6,5 months. We splinted about 16 weeks and results are here. We were persistent. And, we were very satisfied on the end. As parents, my husband and I are very proud because I know that when Andrea will be older she will be very happy to have beautiful perfect ears! Thanks to EarBuddies!"
Ana, Milan & their Daughter Andrea - Serbia
Read Ana's full story here!"When my daughter was born my husband and I immediately noticed that one ear was misshapen. At first we didn’t think much of it, but after researching, we discovered that she had a Stahl's ear and if we acted fast it could be easily corrected. We debated correcting the ear or not and ultimately decided to do it as if when our daughter was older, and she wanted it corrected, it would require expensive surgery. The children’s hospital we called would charge thousands of dollars to correct one ear. With EarBuddies we corrected our baby’s ear in just two weeks for about $85.
Everything we read said the earlier the better for correcting the ear so I was happy the shipping to the US was fast which let us get the EarBuddies on when she was just 11 days old. My husband and I are so happy with our decision to use EarBuddies and wish more doctors were aware of how easy it can be to correct some ear deformities. None of our doctors knew anything about ear shaping and we were lucky to have discovered EarBuddies when we did."
Read Anna's full story here!At least 5% of people have abnormally shaped or Stick-Out ears. Stick-Out ears are the most common ear deformity, and around 2% of babies develop Stick-Out ears in the first 6 months of life. EarBuddies can be fitted by parents at home in under 20 minutes. An independent study at the Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow in 2012 showed a 78% success rate in newborns when splints are fitted by parents, with 73% rating ease of use as 'easy' or 'incredibly easy'. With early splintage and dedication, fantastic results continue to be achieved by parents at home.
When your baby is born, the cartilage framework of the ears is extremely soft because of Mum’s hormones. Some squashing of the ears is natural at birth, but if the ears remain an odd shape after 48 hours, or if they start to stick out, this will quite quickly become permanent as the cartilage hardens. EarBuddies splints re-mould the cartilage folds in a baby's ears to restore the natural curves and hold the ear close to the side of the head so that when the framework hardens in the controlled shape, there is a permanent, surgery-free correction.
While the majority of EarBuddies™ are fitted by parents at home, when professionally fitted and the treatment supervised, success rates rise to up to 92%, even in older babies or those with difficult ear problems.
Professional fitting combines the surgery-free, permanent correction of EarBuddies™ with the clinical experience of trained fitters. Choose amongst our global network of EarBuddies™ Professionals.