At What Age Can Skull Reshaping Surgery Be Done?

Q: Dr. Eppley, have a 3 year old daughter who was diagnosed as an infant with torticollis. She developed severe brachycephaly as a result. We helmeted her for over 6 months but achieved minimal results. Her head remains quite wide, flat across the back and her forehead protrudes. As a mother who has lost countless hours of sleep stricken with guilt about what I could’ve done differently, I’m at the point where I’m trying to figure out what her options might be later in life. I see some really promising before and after photos on your site of adults you have treated. What age would you say the youngest patients arrive at your office? Teenagers? Clearly we would be a ways away, but I would love some perspective on what I might be able to tell her when she grows up and realizes her head is a really strange shape. Thank you for your time!

A: The aesthetic correction of head shape abnormalities through onlay augmentations and/or bone reductions (skull reshaping surgery) is not done until at least the teenage years when the skull is more grown and the bone is thicker.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana