Brow Bone Reduction

Q: Dr. Eppley, f a person would like to reduce the brow bone and the nose size, wouldn’t it be best to have them done on the same day of surgery? I ask this because if a brow bone surgery is performed and them the nose after, it is possible that the brow has to be reduced again . i think I’m not explaining very well. Anyway my question is can you perform rhinoplasty and brow bone reduction together ? I’m also interested in chin reduction.

A: There would be no technical or medical reason why rhinoplasty, brow bone reduction and chin reduction surgery could not all be performed at the same time as a single surgery. The combination of these procedures is not all that uncommon. I think the origin of your question is the concern that one procedure may aesthetically affect the other. This doing them together would allow for a more harmonious result. While this concept is not as relevant as one may think, there is a relationship between a brow bone reduction and rhinoplasty at the radix where the two procedures ‘meet’. Depending upon the type of rhinoplasty performed and how much dorsal hump reduction may be done there can be a real impact of how one procedure affects the other and how the details of it would be performed. Such a relationship at the upper nose and central brow bone area, and how much reduction should be done, would be determined before surgery using computer imaging.

Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana