Will Forehead Horn Reduction Effect The Integrity of the Frontal Bone?

Q: Dr. Eppley, In regards to forehead horns I have three questions: 

1) is it almost always an extra amount of bone, rather than the shaping of the skull? (meaning the skull is shaped rather normally underneath and the excess can be burred off?) 

2) if a “safe” amount is taken off, will integrity be sacrificed at all? If I were to play a contact sport or something after reduction, would skull damage be any more likely? 

3) is there another name for these? Is it just pretty rare? You’re basically the only surgeon who comes up when I try to look in to this.

A: In answer to your forehead horn reduction questions:

1) The exact origin of forehead horns is nor precisely known. But they are a prominence of the upper forehead that can be burred down if that makes for an aesthetic improvement of the shape of the forehead. In some patients that have an overall greater retroclination to the forehead it may be better to build up the bone around the horns as a method for their ‘elimination’.

2) The amount of bone reduced in forehead horn reduction does not compromise the integrity of the frontal bone.

3) The term ‘forehead horns’ is a well known term for these upper forehead prominences that has been in use long before I ever treated them.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana