Compassionate & Effective Hearing Loss Treatment 

Hearing loss can significantly limit your child's quality of life. However, we offer several hearing loss treatment options, which can effectively restore your child's ability to hear, including canalplasty and bone conducting hearing devices. Dr. Russell H. Griffiths has been providing safe and successful ear reconstruction services for nearly 30 years at his practice in Boise, ID. Pairing customized treatment plans with compassionate care, Dr. Griffiths has transformed the lives of many local and international patients and their families.

Surgical Reconstruction 

During a canalplasty, an Otologist (a specially trained ENT surgeon) reconstructs the ear canal. Patients must be carefully screened with a preoperative temporal bone computed tomography (CT) scan and a special audiogram to determine if they are candidates for treatment. The basic goal of this operation is to create a canal through the temporal bone to expose the middle ear space. This area contains the small bones that normally conduct the sound from the eardrum (tympanic membrane) to the oval window of the cochlea.

During the procedure, Dr. Griffiths can harvest a thin graft of fascia from the temporal muscle and use it to create the tympanic membrane. He can then harvest skin grafts to line the walls of the new canal. Finally, Dr Griffiths can connect the skin grafts to the rest of the reconstructed ear, including the conchal bowl and tragus (the small bump of cartilage in front of the ear canal at the edge of the cheek).

At what age can my child's hearing be surgically corrected?

When your child is five years of age or older, they can be evaluated for either a canalplasty (opening the ear canal), or changing the soft band for an abutment, or an implanted magnet (to hold the sound amplification device against your child's head rather than the softband). It is important that your child's otologist and microtia surgeon work together on the proper timing of surgery. 

Pairing customized treatment plans with compassionate care, Dr. Griffiths has transformed the lives of many local and international patients and their families. 

Surgical Care with Dr. Griffiths

Dr. Griffiths is unique and unlike other microtia surgeons, your child can have his or her hearing restoration surgery at the same time as the outer ear reconstruction (One-Stage Microtia Atresia Reconstruction). While Dr. Griffiths is sculpting and assembling the ear framework (whether it be out of rib cartilage or Medpor), our otologist can reconstruct their ear canal, or place a hearing device abutment or magnet at the same time. Performing both procedures simultaneously produces better aesthetics and lowers the risk for canal stenosis.

Minimizing the Risk of Canal Stenosis

After the ear canal is reconstructed, there is a risk that it can contract and close up again (stenosis). Some authors place this risk between 50 and 60 percent.  Dr. Griffiths and our otologist have modified the operation and the postoperative care protocol to reduce our risk to below 10 percent.

Actual Patient Results