Can The Vertical Height Of My Forehead Be Reduced?

Q: Dr. Eppley,I’m interested in a forehead and upper skull contouring procedure to improve the overall proportions of my head. I’ve seen your case where you performed a full-head reduction by a few millimeters, and I’m curious whether it’s possible to apply a similar technique limited to the frontal area.My main goal is to reduce the vertical height of my forehead, specifically the distance between my eyebrows and hairline. I am not looking for hairline lowering surgery, but rather actual bone removal in the frontal region. I will provide an image to illustrate the cut and shape I am imagining. Would this type of procedure be possible, and would it result in a measurable shortening of the forehead — likely only a few millimeters?

A: Thank you for your inquiry and sending your x-ray. The forehead like all other bony areas of the skull can be reduced by burring which entails removal of the outer cortical layer down to the diploic space. The question is not whether that can be done but how effective would it be for the patient’s goals. Based on your x-ray and the red line you have drawn on it that is about 5 mm of bone reduction which the x-ray shows can be safely done. That will result and I someone increase backwards slope to the fore head which appears to be your primary aesthetic goal. Whether that would result in any measurable decrease in the distance between the frontal hairline and the brow bones is more suspect unlike the slope changes from the bony reduction.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon