How Can The Back Of My Head Be Made Bigger?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in skull reshaping if that´s possible. I´m a 45 year-old male and I wish to know if there is any procedure to implant some type of  material at the occipital area in order to increase that part of my skull and make it a little more aesthetic, because I have that part very flat. I would also like to know if that would leave me with very visible scars?  I would like my skull elongated in the anteroposterior axis. Thanking you in advance. 

A: There are numerous methods of skull augmentation or expansion. They all rely on adding synthetic materials to the deficient skull area in the desired shape. The two basic methods are cranioplasty materials, such as PMMA (acrylic) and hydroxyapatites, and a custom-fabricated silicone or silastic skull cap or prosthesis. There are advantages or disadvantages to each approach which fundamentally comes down to cost and the ability to get a smooth contour and the maximal amount of expansion. The limiting factor in how much expansion can be obtained is how much the scalp can expand and to get a relatively tension-free scalp closure over the augmentation material. In my experience, a safe amount of skull augmentation is about 10mm in thickness. That may not sound like a lot but it creates an effect more significant than the number suggests. All of these methods require an open approach with a scalp incision to place them. This results in a fine line scar across the upper back of the head, somewhat similar to the location of a hair transplant harvest scar.

Dr. Barry Eppley