Do Head Widening Implants Exist?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am looking at your website about the ‘head widening surgery’. I am bothered by the fact that I have a ‘narrow head’, and that my face looks a bit like a ‘tree leave’. I attached a pic from your website which is a young man having a ‘head narrowing surgery’. Am I right to assume that a ‘head widening surgery’ will have a result of the man’s head before the ‘head narrowing surgery’? Since I cannot find any before-and-after picture for the ‘head widening surgery’. Also am i right in saying that the ‘head widening surgery’ has nothing to do with the temple part of one’s face? If it doesn’t, will a ‘head widening surgery’ create an illusion that one has ‘wider temple’ (more volume), despite the surgery is enhancing a different area (head skull) of one’s face? Moreover, since two implants will be put on one’s sides of the head skull, and since the implants are big in size, will they impose pressure on surrounding nerves? Lastly, I am trying to do research but i’m not seeing doctors that do this surgery. May I ask if you discover such surgery yourself? Is there any surgical case or any before-and-after photos you’d be able to share? Thank you very much!

A: Head widening surgery is done by temporal augmentation with custom designed implants. Whether that is done partially (anterior or posterior areas) or completely (anterior and posterior depends on the type of head widening effect one wants to achieve. Such implants are placed from an incision in the crease of the back of the ear either in the submuscular, subfascial or suprafascial location depending on the temporal coverage needed.