Will Skull Augmentation Implants Last A Lifetime?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I’m a young male and I’ve been dealing with severe anxiety since my teenage years due to the size of my skull, which I find too small. Hitherto, I thought there would be no way to fix that, but I’ve learned about your work, so I browsed your gallery and what I saw was absolutely amazing. Basically, the idea would be to lightly increase the width of my head and to give some volume at the back of it. I want you to ask you several questions :

1) Can the implant be kept for a lifetime ?

2) What is the look of a typical scar after healing ? (scarring is not so much an issue, and compared to how the skull enlargement procedure would benefit me, I wouldn’t care so much)

3) Is there a risk for the implant to “slide” ? I suppose it is attached to the skull solidly, so no, but still unsure.

4)What would be the typical cost for such an operation, including the price of an implant ? I guess this may vary drastically upon the complexity/nbr of implant and the difficulty of the operation.

5) Silly question but : is the thickness of the implant a modifiable parameter ? If I want quite a thin one for instance ?

Thank you for your time, looking forward for an answer ! Hope you have a great week and congratulations for your work.

Best regards,

A: Thank you for your inquiry and detailing your head shape concerns and objectives. In answer to your skull augmentation questions:

1) Custom skull implants are made of solid silicone that will last a lifetime and never need to be replaced due to material degradation or breakdown.

2) Custom skull implants are typically placed through remarkably small incisions given the size of the implants that heal remarkably well. Many people only envision the traditional use of full coronal incisions that are used in craniofacal surgery but that type of scalp incision is almost never used in aesthetic skull reshaping surgery.

3) Custom skull implants do not become displaced or ever slide around. They are firmly fixed to the bone and/or fascia and actually get tissue ingrowth through them.

4) My assistant Camille will pass along the general cost of such surgery.

5) The design (footprint and dimensions) of custom skull implants is done in any way that achieves the patient’s aesthetic goal, That is why they are custom designed and made individually for each patient.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana