Is There Any Procedure To Correct A Flat Back Of The Head?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Hi, I am 25 years old and have been extremely self conscious of my head shape for half my life. It causes me low self esteem every day, and am at a point where I don’t want to live with this problem anymore I want to know if there is a procedure that can help. Specifically the back of my head is flat.. This makes my head shape look odd and I cannot leave the house without using techniques that will cover the issue. I never let anyone see me with wet hair because of this. Do you offer a procedure such as implants or something that would help with my problem? Or any recommendations?

A: Building out the back of the head is one of the most common uses of custom skull implants which is a frequent procedure in my practice. The key about occipital augmentation in particular is how much desired change is needed and whether the stretch of the scalp can accommodate the size of the implant or whether a first stage scalp expansion needs to be done first. The best way to make that determination is computer imaging. If you can send a side view picture of your head I can do some imaging to determine how much back of the head augmentation would be desired by you.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana