The ear and its malformations: strange beliefs and misconceptions.

Objective: To explore the strange beliefs and misconceptions related to the ear and its malformations, and how these have changed from ancient times until today.

Methods: Ancient documents, journal articles, and history books were studied to research ancient and current beliefs and misconceptions with regard to the ear and its malformations.

Results: The ear has been the centre of various beliefs and misconceptions through human history. Discoveries in the area of Assyria and Babylonia have revealed that the inhabitants of these countries not only had documented various congenital dysplasias of the ear but also they believed that these malformations had prophetical meaning and implied hereditary disorders. These observations and prophecies may very well have their origin to the 4th millennium BC. Egyptian and Greek-Roman medicine had suggested strange connections of the ear with close or remote parts of the human body and similar beliefs can be found through the later centuries. Hebrew and Greek-Byzantine conceptions of the perfect appearance that priests or kings should have, led to exclusion of people who had congenital ear malformations and even to mutilation (cutting off the ears) as a method of punishment.

Conclusion: The present study illustrates the wide variety and the long history of misconceptions related to children born with congenital malformations of the pinna and the external ear canal. These misconceptions may have led to a conscious and subconscious anxiety and pressure from parents and patients to ENT and plastic surgeons to correct the ear malformations as soon as possible in order to avoid psychological and social problems.