Can A Forehead Be Widened?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in making my forehead wider. I think it is too narrow for my face. My face has good features and dimensions but starting with my lower forehead it goes up into scalp like a triangle rather than having a forehead width that matches my lower facial width. I think it would look better of my forehead was wider and more prominent. Is this procedure possible and, if so, how is it done and what are the potential complications?

A:  Widening a forehead as you have described means expanding its bony contours. Traditional forehead augmentation is done through a scalp incision to build out the forehead with onlay cranioplasty materials but it usually lies on the bone within the edges of the anterior temporal lines. Building out or widening a forehead behind the temporal lines is problematic as that requires lifting up part of the temporalis muscle, which will can easily be done, but almost always results in muscle atrophy seen months later. This potentially can expose the edges of the built out area (cranioplasty material) if they are not perfectly smooth and may make a once smooth transition between the two become more noticeable. Some may refer to widening the forehead as augmentation of the temporal hollows, although that would not normally be considered part of the forehead.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana