Are Nerves And Facial Expressions Affected By Forehead Contouring Surgery?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Hi, I was looking into forehead contouring surgery to reduce frontal bossing and had a few questions that I hope you can answer: 

What is the average cost for forehead contouring to reduce frontal bossing? 

How are nerves and expressions affected after the surgery? 

Does the hairline look natural after patients are fully healed and what’s the recovery time? 

When you start shaving the bone, are you making the bone super thin and is that dangerous? Or does frontal bossing create a thicker layer of bone that can be shaved down to a normal thickness. If that could be explained, I’d like to know. 

I’m looking for information to get started, but there’s not much to go off of online, and all the info varies greatly. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

A: In answer to your forehead contouring questions:

1) My assistant Camille will pass along the cost of the surgery.

2) Some temporary numbness of the front part of the scalp and forehead stiffness will occur right after the surgery…all of which resolves in a month or two later.

3) The key question in approaching the upper forehead is whether a hairline incision is used or whether it is placed behind it. But most hairline incisions heal well and look natural provided one has a good initial hairline density.

4) To determine how thick the forehead bone as it relates to the frontal bossing a preoperative x-ray is taken to determine its thickness and see how much bone can be safely reduced.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana