Can My Enlarged Left Brow Bone Be Reduced and Will It Help With My Headaches?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Your work is beautiful. I have a bone growing above my left eyebrow but not my right eyebrow. I am also having headaches concentrated only on the left eye. I am not sure if the 2 are associated. How much is the cost to have this bone shaved down? Also will the surgery help with the headaches as well? Thank you for your time.

A: Thank you for your inquiry and sending your picture. It would be a fair assumption that the enlarged brow bone and the location of headaches in the ‘same neighborhood’ is likely not coincidental given the location of the supraorbital nerve. Compression of the supraorbital nerve is a classic etiology for frontal migraines in some patients. Thus it would also be logical to assume that in reduction of the prominent brow bone, with concomitant supraorbital nerve decompression, that headache relief is possible.

Another important consideration is why the brow bone on that side is enlarged. While I have seen numerous patients with brow bone asymmetries they usually don’t have associated headaches. Thus this merits evaluation with a 2D CT scan to ensure that the brow bone enlargement is due to typical over aeration of the frontal sinus on that side and not from an actual bone overgrowth pathology. (e.g., osteoma, osteoid osteoma)

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana