Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Creating an Ear That Won't Fall Off

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

A truck driver suffered near-fatal injuries in a massive crash -- including the loss of an ear, severed by his seat belt. But that accident presented an otologist-neurotologist and surgeon with the Silverstein Institute in Sarasota an opportunity to try a new technology, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports.

The old technology, in which plastic surgeons crafted a sort-of ear and glued it to the head, wasn't ideal because the ear didn't look normal and in the Florida heat it sometimes fell off. The one that maxillofacialprostheticist David Trainer is creating will be held on with titanium implants inserted into bone.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.