Chin Implant Removal Treatment Options for Balled Up Chin

Q: Dr. Eppley, My concerns and questions have to do with my chin. I had a chin implant removal procedure done over a year ago because I disliked they way it look. The capsule was left to give me some augmentation. However I still dislike it. I also have mentallis muscle strain and have gotten Botox to help with it in the past. Overall, I’ve been told that cutting the mentalis muscle will help the way my chin looks because now it kind of looks like a ball, really round especially when I smile. I would like another opinion and to consider my options. 

A: With the tissue expansion that occurs from a chin implant, chin implant removal surgery results in an overall soft tissue chin pad excess. It is not just the mentalist muscle alone that creates the redundant so tissue chin pad. I have also never heard of leaving the implant capsule because it would create an augmentation effect as it ends up getting resorbed.

The direct answer to your question is that unraveling the contracted and stretched mentalist muscle MAY improve the ball shape that now exists with your chin after the implant removal. But there is no guarantee that it will be completely successful. That can not be accurately predicted before surgery.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana