March 16, 2015 - I was shaving the other morning and I noticed something – my ears looked larger than I remembered. I examined them closely and sure enough, my ears are larger in my old age. Then I noticed my nose, it, too, is getting bulbous. Could my nose and ears still be growing? No one told me about that aspect of aging.
This revelation deserved a little research, and I found out that most dermatologists agree that your ears and nose continue to grow just a little as one ages. They say that the ears are fully grown by age six, and the nose by thirteen. But, as time goes by, both nose and ears droop as soft tissue, skin, and muscles relax as structural support ages. Since the ears and nose are mostly cartilage, they tend to get larger as loss of elasticity and collagen in the skin sags.
To compound the problem, heavy earrings stretch the soft tissue of the ear lobe making the ear look even larger. The nose has a large number of sebaceous glands that have greater growth potential. No one told me that I may have ears like a bloodhound in a few years.
The second thing no one told me about is that your front teeth seem to get larger due to gums receding. If you are getting “long in the tooth”, it is because your gums are deteriorating and have begun to shrink away from the crown position of the tooth. The length of the average front tooth is 10 to 12 millimeters. It can become as long as 15 to 20 millimeters in the same way our skin loses collagen fibers. So, I guess I can look forward in the next few years with front teeth that would do justice to any jackrabbit, along with the ears to match.
The third thing to look forward to is hands that get veiny and spotted. Hands lose the soft, plump, unmarked hands of youth to resemble a road map. Women tend to cover them up with large rings and bracelets. I used to refer to the brown spots as “liver spots”, but am not sure that is correct. Men just have to walk around with their hands hidden in their pockets, or just grin and bear the condition. I heard one man say, “My hands have been around a long time and served me well. They deserve to look any way they want to.”
The fourth item to look forward to – your feet get gnarly. Remember how in your youth your feet were smooth, toes straight, and you never hesitated to wear flip-flops or go barefooted? As we age the feet lose elasticity and flexibility in the soft tissues, tendons, and ligaments. Along with aging then come flat feet, hammertoes, and bunions. Occasionally some fungus invades the toe nails which make them look like something out of a horror movie. Women seem to fare much worse in this area due to wearing high-heeled shoes for many years, which puts stress on the bones which eventually give way and deform the foot.
Finally, old age brings on an increase in facial hair. Hair may fall out of a man’s head, but it grows prolifically in the ears and nose. I heard a man once say that he treated his balding head with green persimmon juice. He said that it did not grow new hair, but would shrink down the size of your head to match what hair that is left. Many older women get sideburns and moustaches due to an imbalance in hormones.
Yes, no one ever told me about these consequences of aging. It is amazing what our parents, Mother Nature and Father Time, have in store for our aging bodies. About all one can do is make the best of the hand you are dealt by your “age parents”, which include larger ears and noses, larger front teeth, spotty and veiny hands, gnarly feet, and lots of facial hair. It seems that age is no respecter of persons as we will all get there eventually.
