Skull Reshaping Surgery

Q: Dr.. Eppley, Why are there so few surgeons who perform skull reshaping surgery? Is skull reshaping surgery safe like other types of cosmetic surgery? What makes it so different from other types of cosmetic surgery like a facelift or breast implants?

A: You have to have specialized training in craniofacial surgery, which is a subspecialty of plastic surgery. Then you have to know how to apply craniofacial surgery techniques to aesthetic skull shape concerns and to do in a manner that does not leave undesired effects like adverse scarring. Third, you have to have a worldwide internet presence to draw enough patients to gather the experience to get skilled and proficient at it. Lastly, you have to have an interest in aesthetic skull surgery to develop this very niche area of plastic surgery. When you add up these four factors that makes for a very limited number of plastic surgeons who would ever do it.

In fact, most plastic surgeons today are completely unaware that such aesthetic changes to the head shape are even possible. Most surgeons and patients alike equate skull reshaping surgery to taking the skull bones off, reshaping them and putting them back. That is what occurs in infant craniofacial surgery but not aesthetic skull reshaping surgery.

Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana