Microtia happens very rarely. About one child out of every ten thousand children are born with microtia. And out of those a majority of microtia birth defect cases are the grade three microtia which means there is hearing loss because there is no formed ear canal.
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The congenital ear deformity known as Microtia has four "grades." The first grade of microtia is the least severe, going to the fourth grade of microtia which is the most severe of microtia birth defect cases in which a child is born without an external ear.
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Most children born with the congenital ear deformity, microtia, as stated above are born with grade three of microtia which means the children will have a little external ear that looks a bit like the shape of a peanut shell. The children will have hearing loss in that ear because in a grade three of microtia there is no ear canal or ear drum. Microtia is mostly a common birth deformity that happens in male children.
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One cause of microtia that has been found is when the pregnant mother takes Accutane during pregnancy. Accutane can effect the growing child's ear development and cause external ear deformity or complete loss of an external ear development.
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To know if your son or daughter has hearing loss accompanied by the microtia external ear deformity, a doctor or nurse will perform a regular hearing test done as a routine at every child's birth. When a child is around five years old another hearing test can be done via a CAT-scan which is actually not really a hearing test as much as it is to see how much of an internal ear the microtia patient has. It is at this time that a doctor can determine whether a child with microtia would be able to benefit from surgery. Some children have more of an internal ear formation where microtia mainly effected the external ear and a little of the ear canal. With CAT-scan tests a doctor can tell if a child with microtia is a good candidate for hearing loss reparation surgery.
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A child with microtia could even have an external ear surgery that would result in ear reshaping. This type of microtia surgery is especially successful when a child has grades one thru three of microtia where there is already some ear tissue and the doctor only has to do some ear reshaping to form an external ear. In the case of microtia grade four a child won't have one external ear or will be completely missing both external ear(s). Along with grade four microtia is also usually complete hearing loss due to an absence of the inner ear formation. In the case of grade four microtia a doctor would be able to do a series of external ear surgery to create an external ear or external ear(s) either out of a child's cartilage or out of another plastic surgery material so that the child can have an external ear(s).
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In any case there is surgery that a doctor could do to improve all grades of microtia, but the type of surgery necessary and the hearing loss repair surgery would depend upon the grade of microtia and the age of the child.
Author Resource:
One cause of microtia that has been found is when the pregnant mother takes Accutane during pregnancy. Accutane can effect the growing child's ear development and cause external ear deformity or complete.... Learn more at Microtia and external ear
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