How Can My Forehead Augmentation Be Fixed Now?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I was born with a congenital mishaped head. Do you do craniotomy’s? Do you work on adults? I had a forehead implant in 2009, it held up for nearly 3 yrs then started sliding. I let it go, saw a surgeon and he was going to take out implant & in 6 months do the craniotomy. As we thought I’d torn my dura mater, it was just a very, very severe infection and now he doesn’t want to do it! I was heart sick. I then saw a colleague of his & she wants to do bone paste. I’m just checking out all my options.

A: As I understand your skull situation, you had some type of forehead implant which became infected and had to be removed. I am assuming there is a remaining frontal bone albeit misshapen and recessed. I assume they have done an updated 3D CT scan of your forehead/skull so that the residual bony anatomy is known. I could not give a qualified opinion as to what your options are now without seeing that scan. Whether any form of synthetic material should be now used is the question. I assume the original implant material was PMMA. Certainly that material should not be used again and HA bone cement would be a better option.

Dr Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana