Can I Make My Head Wider?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am just enquiring about getting my head wider. I have a fairly thin head and want it wider. Is that possible?

A: When it comes to widening faces, most of the narrowing that I see is in the temporal regions from the lateral orbital wall  back into the temporal muscle above and behind the ear. Augmentation of the narrowed temporal region can be done one of two ways. The first method would be to use off-the-shelf silicone temporal implants. They are designed to fill out temporal hollows and are placed under the temporalis fascia just above the muscle. While they are primarily intended to be used to fill out the temporal hollows between the side of the eye and the temporal hairline, an additional implant can also be placed above the ear level also. This does not give the ideal augmentation because of the shape of the implant, but it is the most economical approach because it uses ready-made implants. The second approach is to use custom-fabricated implants made out of either Gore-Tex (carved out blocks during surgery) or silicone (pre-made off of a skull model) materials. They would provide the most ideal augmentation because the implants cover the optimal surface area of the temporal regions.

The other narrowed area is more of the head and is in the upper temporal region back to the occiput. This is a more challenging because the temporalis fascia gets very thin the higher it goes up the skull/forehead. This makes it difficult to have a subfascial implant which helps camouflage the contours of the implant.  

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana