Is Temporal Reduction Safe?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I read an article about temporal muscle reduction and it said that 70% of their clients died after two years, due to the surgery. Now I don’t know if it was specifically talking about shrinking the muscle. My question is, has this procedure been tested safe for people, because us people should not be put under the knife for a surgery which has been invented just recently and doesn’t have enough evidence to know if it’s safe or not. And is cutting and shrinking the temporal muscle dangerous? will it cause infections, brain damage, dead blood vessels, cancer and so on…

A: When it comes to aesthetic temporal reduction, primarily by muscle reduction/shortening, your perception or readings on it (of which I am not aware anything has ever been written in the medical literature in regards to  aesthetic temporal reduction) are grossly inaccurate. You are obviously confusing intracranial vs. extracranial temporal surgery. Temporalis muscle reduction is very safe and effective. as it is done on the outside of the skull. The only issues are aesthetic, the need for a fine line vertical incision in the temporal scalp and how much tenporal reduction can be achieved.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana