Can I Make My Collarbones More Visible?

Q: Dr  Eppley, I am a 20 year old woman with a naturally slim build, but despite being pretty skinny, my clavicles are not visible or pronounced in the way I would like them to be. This has been a long-standing aesthetic concern for me, and I’m reaching out to ask about your custom clavicle implant procedure. I am particularly interested in whether such an implant could be made very prominent, as I am hoping for a more visibly defined clavicle contour — even at rest, without tensing or lifting my shoulders. I also have a few medical and lifestyle concerns I hope you can advise me on: 1. Is this type of implant safe and effective for aesthetic-only purposes (without previous trauma or asymmetry)? 2. Would I be able to return to sports and physically intense activities, such as weight training or even skydiving, once fully healed? 3. Where is the incision made, and how large is it typically? I unfortunately tend to develop keloid scars, so this is something I’d like to plan around carefully.

A:Thank you for your inquiry regarding clavicle enhancement surgery. In answer to your specific questions about it:

1) This is a very safe surgery that I have learned based on my extensive experience with clavicle reduction and clavicle lengthening surgeries. The clavicle can be circumferentially elevated from its external attachments immediately to its shoulder attachments laterally and then a predesigned implant can be wrapped around it much like a tube. Like all aesthetic implants the question is always how much size is needed to create the effect. In this case it is a matter of how thick the enveloping layer of the tube implant should be. As a general rule a 5 mm thickness Will increase the clavicle diameter by 1 cm which should be effective in a thin person for improving clavicle show.

2) Placement of such a wraparound clavicle implant will in no way impede any subsequent sports or physical activities.

3) The incision used to place the clavicle implant is the same as that is done for clavicle reduction surgery, a 3.5 cm incision behind the clavicle in the supraclavicular fossa. Such incisions heal extremely well with minimal visibility in my extensive experience with them. This is not an area due to the very thin skin that is prone to develop any hypertrophic scarring. Having performed hundreds of such incisions I have yet to see a bad scar result.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgery