Jaw Angle Restoration with Vertical Lengthening Jaw Angle Implants

Q: Dr. Eppley, As you are famous for your work with facial augmentation, I hope you can guide me in what to do in my current situation.

I underwent jaw shaving surgery overseas where my gonial angles were completely amputated. I could live with the results but I feel as if just a smidge more length would make me a lot happier with the results (not restoring the angle completely.) This is because from certain angles, especially in photographs, my jawline looks too unnaturally straight, the angle looks slightly too high, and makes my face shape slightly off-looking.

Specifically, I’m probably looking for no widening effect but maybe a vertical lengthening effect of between 0.5cm to 0.6cm at the very maximum. (I think this is small anyway)

In my home country, there is only one doctor who works with custom jaw implants but he lives on the other side of the country, and so I’m looking for alternatives before I decide whether or not it’s worth the effort to go there for such a small augmentation effect. The doctors who are closer to me do not offer jaw angle implants for the size I am looking for.

What options do I have to permanently achieve this augmentation without the use of custom/regular silicone implants? Are custom silicone implants the only way I can achieve the effect I am looking for? To be quite honest, I would just like a surgeon a bit more closer to home this time as not being close to my surgeon post-op after jaw shaving scared me quite a bit. 

Is it possible for an ‘implant’ to be carved out of a hydroxyapatite block into shape that I need and stuck onto the bottom of the jawline? 

Can granules be used for such a minor lengthening effect?

A: The simple answer to your question is that when you need to add length to the back of the jaw, you need a performed implant with a stable shape to do so. Small vertical lengthening jaw angle implants, which are preformed are exactly what you need to ‘cap’ the cut off part of the jaw angles.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana