Donald Trump has been wearing a bandage over his ear, covering the wound where a gunshot took off a chunk, which experts say will not be easy to fix.
"It definitely requires a little bit of an artistic touch and it requires someone who does a lot of these to make it look good," San Antonio's Dr. Thomas Jeneby tells 1200 WOAI's Michael Board.
The Board Certified plastic surgeon, who heads the Plastic and Cosmetic Center of South Texas, says that reconstructing an ear is unlike other parts of the body. That part of Trump's body, which was damaged by a bullet, is full of cartilage. And getting the curve to look just right, he says, is like doing artwork.
"It has to be carved perfectly so it doesn't look out of place. It has to have a curvature."
And, to get that right, he says doctors have a few choices. He says they can harvest cartilage from Trump's rib and use it to reshape the ear. They can also use man-made material. And, while that sounds tricky, he says it's often done in pediatric cases to fix birth defects.
The former president posted to social media about the injury, which happened over the weekend. A gunman used an assault rifle to shoot at the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania. The 78-year old says the bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear.
"I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin," he said on Truth Social.
Since the attack, a bandage has covered the injury. Dr. Jeneby says he'll likely be told to wear it for a long time.
"You would probably wait three to six months for that area to calm down from the trauma. And then you could look into reconstruction."
But, he says, the surgery is not medically necessary. Damage to that part of the ear will not affect Trump's hearing.