Can you safely remove 100% gold needles that look like susuk needles from your forehead without major surgery? In the subcutanous somewhere. In order to have ultherapy and fotona 5d. The Ct angiogram says they are beneath the scalp but haven't consulted radiology yet on it.

The short version: You need a radiologist and a surgeon to answer whether the needles can come out without a major procedure. The cosmetic energy devices you want to use afterward are a separate risk.

Here is what matters. The evidence on susuk needles comes from a single case report [1]. It says the needles are 0.5 to 1 mm thick and 5 to 10 mm long, inserted subcutaneously by traditional healers. The management advice is clear: remove them only if there is an infection or other problem directly caused by the needle. Routine removal is not recommended.

The evidence says removal is for a cause, not for convenience before cosmetic procedures.

Now look at the cosmetic devices. The retrieved studies on focused ultrasound (Ultherapy) and laser (Fotona, Nd:YAG, Er:YAG) are all about skin tightening, not about compatibility with metal implants. None of them test what happens when ultrasound or laser energy hits a gold needle in the tissue. A gold needle in the beam path could concentrate energy, reflect it, or heat unpredictably. The risk is real: thermal injury to deeper tissue or the nerve. You have no published safety data for this combination.

The angiogram showing needles beneath the scalp is the right starting point. Radiology consultation is necessary to map exact depth and relation to bone, vessels, and nerves. That mapping will tell a surgeon whether the needles can be extracted through a small incision or whether a larger approach is needed. No one can answer "can they be safely removed?" without that anatomy. The published literature does not address removal from the forehead specifically.

My call: The safety data for using Ultherapy or Fotona over susuk gold needles does not exist. The needles themselves should not be removed without a clear clinical reason. If removal is medically necessary for the planned energy procedures, a radiologist and a surgeon must map the exact anatomy first. Do not proceed with cosmetic energy treatments until a surgeon confirms the needles are gone or confirms the treatment is safe with them in place. Confidence: moderate – the anatomical detail in the evidence is thin, but the risk from energy-metal interaction is a known physical principle, not something a manufacturer has studied.