What Can Be Done For An Overly Projecting Forehead?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Can my prominent bony forehead be reduced?

A:The question is not whether you can have bony reduction of your forehead protrusion… as you can. The two pertinent questions are as follows:

1) Is the bone thick enough to allow for an adequate reduction? In other] words is this bump due to thicker bone or is it due to thinner bone in which the brain has merely pushed it out. While in my experience it is always the former it is always prudent to get a 3-D CT scan of your fore head with Color mapping of the bone thicknesses which will clearly show the thickness of the bone and how much can be safely reduced. This then provides one of the qualifiers for forehead bone reduction.

2) The second question, which is an aesthetic one and it precedes even getting a scan. is where are we going to put the incision to do the forehead reduction. Most four head reductions require a frontal hairline incision for adequate linear access. That obviously is not going to work in your case which means it would have to be a more posterior scalp incision that is adequately long to be able to turn down the forehead flap for access. Whether the scalp scar is a reasonable trade-off for the aesthetic benefits of the forehead bump reduction is one that has to be determined on an individual patient basis.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Plastic Surgeon