Would Tissue Expansion Be Needed To Lower The Eyebrows Before Placement Of A Custom Brow Bone Implant?

Q: Dr. Eppley, In references to the challenges of lowering the male brow ridge to create an ultra low brow common among male models, you stated “the soft tissues of the eyebrows is very tight and can not be driven down below the existing brow bones unless these tissues have been first expanded before a brow bone implant is placed.” 

Is undergoing tissue expansion before any implants are added likely to make that sort of look a reasonable possibility, or would it still be impossible in most cases? 

What I’m trying to determine is if achieving the combination of a low bony ridge brow ridge/low eyebrows—the “angry” look, so to speak—is simply a matter of expanding tissues before the implant is placed, or if tissue expansion preceding brow bone lowering is something of a “pie in the sky” procedure that may work in some cases, but on the whole has a highly uncertain outcome.

A: As I have previously written the eyebrows can only be significantly lowered if ‘excess’ soft tissue is first created. (soft tissue expansion) A brow bone implant will not usually do not alone. The concept of soft tissue expansion is not a theory, its use has a long history in plastic surgery of which eyebrow expansion/lowering would just be another example.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana