Temporal Reduction

Q: Dr. Eppley, I’m wondering if you can help me…. I’m currently exploring my options. I have recently inquired about what surgery can be done to reduce the width of my head. Other doctors have suggested Botox and also an earfold treatment to pin my ears back. I’ve noticed on your site you do temporal reduction by removal of muscle. My hairline is thinning and I’d be concerned about the scars. A lot of the my width of my head is the muscle as I can move it upwards and see a huge change. I’ve pasted an extraction of part of your website… is this actually possible to do it from an incision behind the ear? I’ve attached a picture for you to review.

A: The most effective and quickest method of narrowing the sides of the head is a temporal reduction procedure where the posterior belly of the temporalis muscle is removed. While I initially developed the procedure using a small incision in the temporal hairline, more and more patients over the years who shaved their heads or had close cropped requested the temporal reduction procedure. It became necessary to find a completely ‘scarless’ way to do the temporal reduction procedure. Just like inserting temporal implants to widen the head, a temporal reduction procedure can also be done through a postauricular incision that sits right in the crease at the back of the ear.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana