Can Forehead Reshaping Get Rid Of My Forehead Bumps?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in forehead reshaping. I have two large forehead bumps that can be easily seen, even from a distance. I was wondering if these could be smoothed down and what the cost would be? Also how long it would take to get in for an appointment and if anything else like a CT scan would need to be done?

A: Your forehead reshaping concerns present a common forehead anomaly that I see. Your forehead bumps are classic for what I call ‘forehead horns’. I have seen these many times and why they occur I can not tell you. But they tend to appear exactly where they are in you and are almost always bilateral. (on both sides) They are fairly easy to reduce and do not require a CT scan or x-ray before doing so. They involve the outer cortex of the skull bone and do not go ‘deep’ or past the diploid layer of the skull bone. When taking them down there often is an indentation below the bumps that, when the bumps are taken down, can make the forehead appear sloped backward. In these cases, I often apply a thin layer of bone cement to correct the forehead inclination. Whether this issue applies to you would require assessment of better pictures from different angles.

The forehead inclination issue aside, the far more important issue is how to get in to do the forehead bump reduction. This requires an incision somewhere and it is an issue of whether to use a more wide open scalp incisional approach or more limited incisions directly over the bumps. That is an issue for further discussion.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana