Brow Bone Reduction

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in a brow bone reduction. Given the strong prominence of my forehead, and based on everything I have seen on Dr. Eppley’s website, my brow bone will probably need to be removed, reshaped, and reattached. If this is the case, how many days will I need to take off work and approximately how long will it take before there are little to no visual signs of surgery?

I still want a masculine forehead.  I do think (based on editing the photos a little myself haha) that reducing the brow bone, and following the natural slope of my forehead, will still allow a little bossing in the brow region where it meets the bridge of my nose.  Although not noticeable in the photos, my brow did not boss in the center between my eyebrows (though it may appear as such in attached photos) creating a hard “valley” between my eyebrows as if the frontal sinus did not fuse together properly during puberty (if that is even possible).  Therefore, I am hoping the results of this procedure will (1) reduce the horizontal protrusion and in effect (2) eliminate the crevice in the center between my eyebrows.

A: Thank you for sending your pictures. I have done imaging to show what type of potential result is possible with a brow bone reduction procedure for you. It is very common to have the brow bone protrusion to be more evident on the sides as the air space of the frontal sinus is often not connected across the midline so the bone protrusion from enlarged sinus spaces is often less evident in the middle or globular region of the brow bones. Both of your brow bone reshaping goals are achievable.

The recovery from brow bone reduction is largely that of appearance. It probably takes about 10 days after surgery until one looks fairly reasonable and a full three weeks until one appears visually completely normal and does not have any signs of having the surgery. There are other physical issues that take longer to recover from such as forehead numbness and incisional healing but that is not an externally seen issue.

Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana