What treatment is needed for cranial deformities?

Head deformities can be due either to birth and positioning or to premature closure of the cranial sutures, a so-called synostosis.

The kind of treatment depends on the cause and extent of the head deformation.

Premature ossification in babies, or synostosis, can only be treated with early surgical correction, which facilitates normal brain growth and at the same time takes aesthetic issues into consideration.

If, however, there has been a shift in the cranial bones with no premature ossification, attempts to reposition less severe deformations in the tiny patient may improve the deformity.

With more severe deformities which have already resulted in an asymmetrical cranial base, physiotherapy and osteopathy may also be indicated. If the cranial deformity cannot be improved by such measures, helmet therapy (head helmet therapy) may also be used.

Helmet therapy utilises the child's own natural growth, which is most rapid in the first year of life.

Cranial deformities are not corrected by pressing on the prominent areas of the head but rather by preventing these areas from growing further and using the child’s own growth for the flattened areas. This occurs with the aid of a head orthosis or helmet.

Numerous treatments have proven that, far from being restricted, the child’s overall head growth follows the course of the growth curve exactly (percentile curve). This principle makes it possible to treat a wide variety of deformities and it has been shown that corrections achieved in infancy last a lifetime.