Chin Implants

Chin Implants

A long sweeping elegant jawline is a most desirable feature in an attractive face and neck. Retrognathia, manifested by bony mandibular deficiency and/or loss of muscular skin pad posture, creates facial disharmony and proportion imbalance. Inadequate chin projection is commonly encountered in patients seeking aesthetic facial surgery. Although chin augmentation may be performed as an isolated procedure, it is frequently performed as an adjunct to rhinoplasty or rhytidectomy. Submental lipectomy associated with chin augmentation adds a further refinement to the mandibulocervical definition.

Malocclusion and significant facial skeletal abnormalities are of course not corrected by chin augmentation alone. Patients with major mandibular deficiencies and asymmetries are best treated by orthognathic and orthodontic correction.

In the rhinoplasty patient, augmentation of the chin brings the lower third of the face into improved alignment and harmony with the middle third. The degree of apparent nasal projection is often dramatically changed in appearance by relative changes in chin projection.

The rhytidectomy patient, as a consequence of aging, commonly exhibits poor chin projection associated with an obtuse cervicomandibular angle. Conservative augmentation with a chin implant establishes better projection and increased differentiation of the mandibular horizontal and cervical vertical planes. The implant may also serve to augment the ptotic chin softtissue structures frequently found in the aging chin; significant chin pad sagging, however, requires cephalic repositioning of the ptotic muscle pad to correct an inferior malposition of these tissues.

Chin implants can be placed through an intraoral or a small external incision. External incision is placed under the chin and is not visible. Silicon and polyethylene (porex) implants are available in market for chin augmentation. We prefer polyethylene implants in majority of our applications.