What Is the Best Approach For My Forehead Augmentation?

Q: I am a bit disappointed with the way that I look and I would like to fix some things. I believe a forehead augmentation would help me look a lot better. One of the changes I would like my forehead to undergo is to put the hairline at a higehr height, so my foehead would become a bit higher. That means building up the upper forehead area about 1 to 2 cms. I don’t think it is necessary to build up any area of the parietal bone. These are the changes I desire in the hairy part of my forehead. The second change I desire is in the brow bone. I have the feeling that from the side, it doesn’t look masculine enough because the brow bone doesn’t stick out as it should in a male. I think an augmentation of a few millimeters and a reshaping with nice corners would improve the way my brow bone looks. The second change I would like to do is the slope of my forehead. The slope of my forehead is very good but somewhere between the hairline and the brow bone the frontal bone has a small ‘puddle’ and I think it should be built up too. Those are the changes I want to do for my forehead and I hope that an endoscopic bone augmenttaion would help. How many grams of cranioplasty material woould be used for this? I have attached a side view of my forehead for you to see its shape.

A: Thank you for sending your pictures. Despite the relative poor image quality, it is clear as to your forehead concerns. I think there is no doubt you would benefit by forehead augmentation (frontal cranioplasty) but I need to clarify what is and is not possible. To achieve a good result, your forehead augmentation can not be done closed or endoscopically.There is no way to ensure a smooth and confluent result by any type of injectable approach. Your forehead reshaping is too complex for that it would have to be done through an open approach requiring a scalp incision. Secondly, the volume of augmentation material that you require makes the use of Kryptonite too expensive. You likely require about 40 grams of material. Your most economic approach would be acrylic (PMMA) where such a volume of material is economically feasible. Thirdly, it is not possible to buildup your forehead as much as 2 cms, the scalp incision could not be closed afterward.

One cm. at most is what is possible. Lastly, your frontal hairline may come up a bit with the augmentation but not substantially so. It is not possible to buildup your forehead an surgically move your hairline back at the same time.

These are some practical considerations for you to consider.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis Indiana