Dent in Head-Top, Back, No Injury, Symptoms, Causes & More

Having a dent somewhere on your skull? Read on to find out why you have it, symptoms and what to do fix it.

Is it normal to have a dent in your head? Where on Skull?

It is not normal to have a dent in head. It is something that can be caused by a number of factors such as Gorham’s disease and vitamin A toxicity.

Common locations of dents in the head

The most common locations of dents in the head happen to be the forehead, top of the head, and the back of the head. In order to better understand this, there is a need to look at head injuries and their various types.

Head injuries including dents in head are currently ranked as some of the most common causes of death and disability in adults.

The severity of the injuries tends to vary, with some being as mild as cuts on your head or a bump in the head, and others being moderate, or severe such as fractured skull bones, deep open wounds, and concussions.

The term head injury refers to various injuries that can affect your brain, scalp, or skull, including their underlying blood vessels and tissues. An injury to the head is also known as traumatic brain injury depends on the severity of your trauma.

These accidents have been rising at a dramatic rate, with estimates indicating that close to one million people suffer from these injuries each year.

Different kinds of head injuries

concussion.

It is a head injury that could cause one to lose alertness of awareness for a few minutes and may last a few hours after the event.

Skull fractures

It occurs when a bone in your skull is broken. There are four kinds of skull fractures, which includes the following:

Basilar skull fracture

 It is deemed to be the most serious and involves a broken bone at your skull’s base. Many people suffering from this kind of fracture will tend to have bruises behind the ears and around the eyes.

You may also notice some clear fluid draining from their ears or noses due to the presence of a tear in the region covering their brain.

Diastatic skull fractures

Such fractures will normally occur in your suture lines, which can be found in your skull. Sutures are regions between the bones found in your head and which normally fuse when one is still a child.

When this fracture occurs, these lines are taken apart. They are more common in children than in grownups.

Depressed skull fractures

It can be seen regardless of whether one has or does not have a cut in their heads. When you get this fracture, a portion of your skull will become sunken due to the trauma. It may require you to undergo surgery for it to be corrected.

Linear skull fractures

They are the most popular kinds of fractures. When you have this fracture, it means that one of your bones has been broken but is not moving with the bone. Patients with this kind of head injury only need to be observed for a few days before going back to their daily activities.

Intracranial hematoma.

 Just as is the case with the skull fractures, there are different types of ICH, also known as brain clots occurring in your brain. These are normally classified depending on the area of the brain where they have been found. They include:

Diffuse axonal injury.

 These are quite common and occur when your brain is shaking back and forth. They are often associated with vehicle accidents, the shaken baby syndrome, or from falls. Their levels of severity range from mild, e.g., concussions to severe, e.g., DAI.

Contusions

Contusions are injuries sustained by your brain. On occurrence, it causes your brain to become swelling and it may start to bleed on the inside. The bleeding will be concentrated in the region that was struck when the injury took place.

Subdural hematoma

This comes about when blood clots begin to form beneath the dura and the skull. They can come about when there is a tear in your veins, particularly the veins that traverse the region between your dura and your brain. They are occasionally associated with skull fractures, but not always.

The head injuries discussed above can help explain the reason why many dents in the head (skull) are found in the forehead, top of the head, and back of the head.

Causes

Dent in head can be caused by the following:

Gorham’s Disease

This particular disorder affects your bones causing them to start turning into vascular tissues. When this happens, the end result is that one ends up having a skull that is misshapen. It is worthy to note that the condition is very rare, and is at times referred to as disappearing bone disease or vanishing bone disease.

As your bones begin to disappear, the space left behind is slowly replaced with lymphatic vessels. As such, the region that previously held the bone starts becoming misshapen and soft. The condition can also affect other regions apart from the head, e.g., your ribs, collarbone, pelvis, and the spine.

There are instances where it may also affect your jawline. The affected regions are likely to become painful and may start to swell. Its severity varies from one person to the next, and unfortunately, its cause is yet to be established.

Hitting the head

A hit to your head can also cause the formation of a dent in head. For example, if you get stuck using a blunt object, it could cause the bones in your skull to crack, and this would then lead to the formation of an inward dent.

Medical experts refer to this dent as the depressed skull fracture. Many people will know when they have been hit or suffered head trauma, and if this has not happened to you, then you should rule it out as the cause.

Vitamin A toxicity

This is one of the leading causes of a dent in head among small children. This form of toxicity is also referred to as hypervitaminosis A and can cause the child’s bones to start swelling, leading to a lot of pain and discomfort.

It is a condition that has been known to cause the child’s bones to become soft, leading to the formation of a dent. As the name suggests, it comes around when a child takes in too much Vitamin A. Apart from causing the formation of a dent in head, too much of this vitamin can also cause:

• Increased brain pressure
• Drowsiness
• Nausea
• Abdominal pain
• Vomiting

A child experiencing the above symptoms should be checked out by a physician.

Infections

There are instances where infections can cause the bones in your skull to become eroded. Any person who has had an infection should be put on antibiotics to ensure that the symptoms do not develop any further.

You need to visit a doctor, as only a qualified physician can be able to tell whether the dent in  head has been caused by an infection.

Meningitis

This is yet another cause, Meningitis occurs when the sac lining your brain becomes swollen. The condition is, however, accompanied by additional symptoms like pain.

Can a baby be born with a dent in the skull?

There is a high probability that the head of your baby will not look the way you would expect it to appear. Actually, you can expect the baby’s head to be misshapen or pointy.

Additionally, it may appear to be huge, covered with crusty scales, and having a soft spot which pulses with every single heartbeat.

When a child is born, it is likely that it will have a head with an average circumference of around fourteen inches. The head will also take up close a quarter of the whole body.

For women who have had a vaginal delivery, particularly one where they had to push for many hours, the child’s head could be cone-shaped or pointy.

This is due to the long hours spent squeezing through your birth channel. However, you should not worry as this will disappear within a few weeks.

The dents present during birth will start to go away and regardless of the shape of the head, it will start to match the rest of the body as days’ go-by.

Indentation in Head Skull Symptoms

According to WebMD, head injuries tend to be very serious and may lead to mental impairment, death, or even permanent disability. For many people, head injuries tend to be acceptable risks that are likely to occur when engaging in recreational activities and sporting activities. But there are steps that you need to take in order to protect your head, and that of your children from sustaining dents. Some of the signs you should be on the lookout for include:

• Trouble remembering things
• Confusion
• Trouble concentrating
• Depression
• Sleep disturbance
• Balance problems
• Light sensitivity
• Fuzzy vision
• Nausea
• Grogginess
• Memory loss
• Tiredness
• Recurring headaches

What can be done to fix it?

Surgery is one of the methods that can be used to correct dent in the head. Normally, the surgeon will consider what caused the formation of the dents before recommending a treatment plan.

He has to look at causes such as natural development, dents from past surgeries, or whether the dents were caused by a trauma to the head. The cause will normally determine the treatment plan

For instance, if it has been caused by natural development, then the treatment may be in the form of an injectable Kryptonite.

References:

• Barry L. Eppley. How to Fix Skull and Forehead Dents: https://www.eppleyplasticsurgery.com/body/
• Robert Rister. What causes dents in the forehead and what to do about it: https://www.steadyhealth.com/medical-answers/categories/musculoskeletal-issues
• What to expect personnel. All about your newborn’s head: https://www.whattoexpect.com/baby-growth/newborn-head-shape.aspx
• Hopkins Personnel. Head Injuries: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/