Vertical Only Custom Jawline Implant?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have 2 questions about a custom jawline implant. Recently I tried to find photos of celebrities with similar skull width and face shape as me, but I noticed that among people with similar midface width, the shape of the jawline can be very different. I can basically tell 2 different types, and what I’m trying to achieve is the Type I effect. That is the “long sharp chin” effect while the jawline still looks 3-dimensional. My current chin implant is sharp, but the size of it is too small and still short and the weight of the entire lower face looks very unbalanced (jaw body vertically short and flat). Also my jawline looks very 2-dimensional.

I really don’t like an over-masculine jawline like a “squared jaw” that protrudes in lateral direction like a lot of bodybuilders might request…). I prefer a neutral but a little more “boyish” one as type I. But almost all results of jaw implants I’ve seen are sort of similar to Type II (it’s big and wide), so

1. I just want to ask whether it is possible to achieve Type I effect with a wrapped-around vertical custom jawline implant?

2. Although it’s obvious that they are different, but I can’t tell exactly what contributed to the differences… Can you tell me some differences between Type I and Type II jawlines?

A: The short answer to your question is that the ONLY way to achieve a more vertical jawline enhancement is with a custom implant approach. No standard or preformed off-the-shelf are designed for that effect, they are all width based implants because they are all sitting completely on the bone. That is why you see many ‘type II’ jawline enhancement results and not your desired ‘type I’ jawline augmentation result.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana