Can I Get A 10mm Vertical Chin Reduction By Burring?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I just wanted to see if this was possible. My lower facial third is 79.4mm. My middle is 60.3mm. My top is 47.6mm. I was to decrease my bottom lip to chin which is at 52mn by 10mm. With a slight burr shave backwards 2mm. I had a sliding genio double jaw surgery several years ago that corrected my underbite but left my lower chin still big and overly projected. I’m aiming for a heart-shaped lower face, so I’d like to reduce my chin vertically by around 9mm and have the chin tapered in width to create a clean, V-line look. Also, if possible, I’d like the chin to be set back just a little — maybe a few millimeters 2-4 — to help with projection. I feel like it slightly juts forward and would look more balanced if it sat closer in line with my lips.

A: With the large chin bone reduction numbers you have described you are not factoring in what happens to all of the overlying soft tissues with such a significant chin bone removal is done (aka loss of support). No matter how that amount of chin bone is done, whether by intraoral wedge removal or a submental inferior border chin shave the residual soft tissues are going to be a potential problem. I would agree that with the prior procedures a submental chin reduction approach would be the most effective because the residual soft tissue chin pad access could be effectively managed. However the key to that being successful is closer to a 4 to 5 mm of vertical reduction with 2 mms of horizontal projection reduction. This is a good example of when it is wise to except less of an aesthetic outcome than you ideally want to avoid other aesthetic issue trade-offs. In this case it is about controlling the length of the submental scar for the soft tissue chin pad reduction

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon