Can I Reverse My Prior Sliding Genioplasty?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have had two prior submental chin pad reduction procedures, which provided improvement, but I sought more. I made the mistake of going to a different surgeon who I was going to for a different procedure, and mentioned I was still unhappy with soft tissue in my chin. He told me he would bring my bone forward just so the soft tissue would have support. He was adamant there wouldn’t be any significant projection to my side profile, if any. However, he not only projected my chin significantly from the side, but it now is longer than it was previously. I am so unhappy with how I look now and obviously regret choosing a surgeon who told me projecting my chin would help me. My question is, would it be possible to at least somewhat reverse what he did to me? Clearly I will not be going back to him, and I was hoping you may have some advice. I have attached my operative report. I went to a consultation with another surgeon recently and he told me that I was still very swollen since my surgery. But he only does chin shaving,  Also, I don’t think any decrease in swelling would do anything substantial to the shape of my chin now. I would appreciate any suggestions or thoughts from you. Thank you.

A:The logic of how you could move the chin bone forward by any amount and not change the side profile it Is a bit of a mystery to me. Your chin bone was advanced 4 mm forward and 2 mm vertically. Together that would certainly make a noticeable difference in projection even though that is a not large bony movement as bony genioplasties go. Since the surgery was done almost a year ago there really is no residual swelling. So whatever you see now is a direct effect of the bony chin movement. The options now are to either reversed the bony genioplasty by intraoral osteotomy or take advantage of the existing submental scar and do a bone shaving of the amount of movement that was done as well as perhaps remove some additional soft tissue chin pad.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon