What do scalp indentations indicate?

Posted on Thu, 6 Mar 2014

Question: My hairdresser who has been doing my hair for over 20 years found 2 scalp indentations that he never felt before one on both sides of my head about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide. He kept checking it out and now I am scared.. I had felt them recently but thought my hair had thinned and that is why I was feeling them now.

Answered by Dr. Manjeth Kumar G (1 hour later)

Brief Answer: May be Pagets disease. x-Ray, Alkaline Phospahatas Detailed Answer: Hello, I have gone through your query and understand your concern. If you do not have any obvious history of Head injury or fracture and indentation from childhood, then it may be due to Paget's disease. In this disease, the normal bone process is disturbed and thus bone is deformed. Usually there is no symptoms for this disease in early stage. Thus you need further investigations like X-Ray of the skull and other long bones like Thigh bone etc. You also need the blood test to measure the enzyme called alkaline phosphatase (ALP). This may be raised in this condition. Now you need the thorough examination of entire skeletal system by your family physician and if needed bone scans. If this is proved to be a Paget's disease, at this stage no treatment is needed. Please do the investigation and revert back. Hope this helps. Please write back for further queries. Wishing you good health.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar