Will A Forehead Augmentation Result In The Hairline Being Lowered?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in a combined forehead augmentation and rhinoplasty. Please see the file attached for my thoughts on how I want to look on the front of my face. Please forgive the crudeness of the drawing, I only have Windows Paint on my computer to play with, which is very limited in abilities ;-). It should give you a general idea however. One of my questions is will the forehead augmentation result in a possible simultaneous hairline lowering? Also, how long would the recovery period be?

A: That is actually a very good drawing as it is always important to understand what the patient actually wants. Any forehead augmentation procedure requires a scalp incision which is almost always placed way behind the hairline and does not really result in hairline lowering. That raises the other possibility of making a hairline incision (what we call pretrichial) to do the forehead augmentation and then try to bring the scalp forward to lower the hairline. This would obviously place the incision at the hairline. Just an additional thought although I always feel it is better to have the incision way away from where the cranioplasty material is placed.

When it comes to recovery from a combined forehead augmentation and rhinoplasty (which is actually not a rare combination in my experience), you would expect to look pretty reasonable in about 10 to 14 days. (although all swelling takes about 6 weeks and final refinements up to 3 months after surgery) It is not really a physical recovery but one of appearance.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis,Indiana