The ear lobe is the area where there is no thick cartilage which makes it easy to puncture. Perforating the ear lobe is a common practice all over the world. Some may do it for fashion, while others may do it because it has some cultural importance. Wearing earrings is often encouraged in many cultures and traditions.
People who wear heavy earrings or due to trauma get earlobe tears. It will require medical attention.
The incomplete cleft- incomplete cleft is half between the initial point and the lower border of the earlobe. These are usually found in older adults wearing heavy earrings.
Full cleft- It is caused by sudden pulling of the ear.
Tear lobes that do not reach the bottom can be treated immediately, but others, like simple splits surgeons, use sutures and surgery. Often tear lobes are treated using local anaesthesia and vasoconstrictor.
The split earlobe is treated by the lobuloplasty in which the surgeon stitches the splits with minimum sutures to make the earlobe complete whole. After that, there will be follow up visits in which the surgeon would check and accordingly remove the sutures. Sutures are terminated after a week or so. It may cause pain, but medications can take care of that.