Patient: Hello Dr. Chen: I had my right ear tympanoplasty done by you last month, and my hearing has improved a lot, thank you very much Dr. Chen! But I have a question for you. I have been experiencing numbness in my ear for a while, I don’t know why. Bing Chen, Department of Otolaryngology, Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital of Fudan University: Most tympanoplasty procedures require a curved incision of several centimeters from the back of the ear, from where the surgeon starts to clean up the lesion and reconstruct the hearing, which will inevitably cut off some sensory nerve branches and affect the sense of touch in the ear (auricle). Some patients may find that their ears don’t seem to be their own after surgery and they don’t feel anything when they touch them. In fact, there is no need to worry about this situation, as it usually recovers slowly after six months, and some patients start to recover after three months. There are certain individual differences, and you can usually recover without special treatment.