Weak Jawline

Q: Dr. Eppley, I’m trying to decide if I should get a BSSO mandible advancement surgery or jaw/chin implants for my overbite and weak jawline. It is very hard to decide and I am not sure what to do.

A: Actually that jaw augmentation decision is much more straightforward than you think it is. First, I would need to see pictures of your face and your bite to make an assessment and any recommendations. Secondly, the BSSO mandibular or lower jaw advancement surgery requires pre- and post surgical orthodontics and is really an operation of a bite change whose result on the aesthetics of the jaw is controlled by how much occlusal change can be done. A BSSO is not really a primary jawline augmentation procedure. It may have some side benefits in that regard but that is not its primary objective. Whether it can achieve the chin projection aesthetic your desire can be determined by preoperative cephalometric tracings. But a mandibular advancement surgery will have no impact on jaw widening or jaw angle augmentation. At best it is mainly a jaw profile enhancement procedure that affects chin projection. Lastly, implants have a distinct 3D effect on the jawline but will not change your bite.

So you can see that the simple answer to your weak jawline quandry is whether your bite needs to be changes for functional purposes or not.

Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana