Mentalis Muscle and Chin Surgery

Q: Dr. Eppley, I read a couple of your answers to questions about the mentalis muscle, and I was hoping you could help me. I had a chin implant place intra-orally a few years back. 

A doctor on ReaSelf said that in all intra oral chin implants, the mentalis muscle attachment must be cut in order to place the chin implant which causes the muscle to sag later in life. 

Is this the case? Will my chin start to sag because the attachment was cut? Could you help re suspend the muscle if it is a problem? Thank you for any info you can give, I’m very concerned about this. 

A: While it is true that all intraoral chin procedures (implants, sliding genioplasty, bony reshaping) requires cutting through the bony attachment (origin) of the mentalis muscle, it is put back together during the wound closure at the completion of surgery. I can only assume that was done in your case because you do not have a chin sag now… as if it was not you would have a chin sag now. I have no idea why a surgeon would say it would sag later….as that is not true nor is there a biologic explanation for that statement.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana